Mind Over Matter 5 The Predator
by runa216
Summary: In this book, Ax wants to go home, liek the original. Well, this raises some problems at the end, where Sam gets captured. read it and see waht comes up.
1. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
When Ax first got to our little house, he was a little disappointed. It wasn't a problem though. He decided indefinitely that he would be living and sleeping outside. Which was cool. Sam and I got our privacy, and Ax was happy.  
  
But when we were showing him around, he asked what we used for communications and Such. We told him we used Tobias. Which was true.  
  
[Why would you do that?] he asked. [Don't humans have computers for communication?]  
  
"Well, we do have computers, but there is no energy out here to run one. And no internet to hook up to the rest. So we are out of luck."  
  
[Surely you have a power source nearby that you can hook into.] he seemed kind of shocked. It bothered me. The concept was simple, we were out in the forest and there was no hydro out here.  
  
"Ax, we have no way to het it here, no source, no wires to connect it, nothing. Why is it a big deal? We have dealt with it for a while, so we can deal with it longer." Sam said.  
  
[It would be much simpler for all of us if you had some sort of device.]  
  
Then it finally struck me. Oh, the possibilities that could come from this. It was obvious that he wanted it, and I knew I did. "Ax, if we could get you some power sources and the appropriate materials, could you make us some sort of little power circuit?"  
  
[Why of course.] he said with a heavy hint of arrogance. [Such tasks are taught in the earliest years of the academic training, even the underdeveloped andalites could...]  
  
I cut him off, "Okay, but you can."  
  
[Yes, I...] I cut him off again with a wave of the hand.  
  
"That's all." I Said. Sam looked at me sideways. I looked right back at him and said, "Sam, get one or two of the dracon beams."  
  
He was still unable to see where I was going, but he went over to the wall with them hidden in it and got two of them out. He had to fly up a bit to get to them. It was a good place to hide them.  
  
"Ax, do you think these would be able to run a primitive human computer? I mean, the amount of power they take." I asked.  
  
[One of the energy crystals from the dracon beams would power an average human household for as long as it needs to. You see, the dracon beam uses compound light energy to form the beam, so the crystal source is unlimited. Or it would recharge. As long as it is not overused for too long, it will last forever.] Ax Explained.  
  
"That's good. Because we have about six or seven of those things laying around. Maybe if we get the proper wires and stuff we could supply power to the house." Sam said, finally seeing where I was going.  
  
"Okay, you have that morph, right?" I asked, "The one of all of us?"  
  
[Of course. I will never lose it.]  
  
"Morph it, we are going uptown."  
  
So Me and Ax both morphed our respective cover morphs and I had to lend him some clothes. We got completely morphed and ready, when I noticed a minor flaw. Ax could barely walk. At least in the forest. When we were in the house on the mostly flat floor, it wasn't a problem, but when we went outside into the lumpy grass, he started to trip and stumble. It wasn't a pretty picture.  
  
So we ended up letting him demorph and walk in his normal body until we reached the edge of the forest. We gave him back his clothes and he put them on. Somehow we managed to make the skintight clothes part of the morph, so that was pretty cool, and cheap, but we still had to dress him up when we left.  
  
[I do not like having only two legs, it is very shaky.] he said.  
  
"Well, I have had to deal with it for 13 years now, so I think you can manage, just don't run into anything and you will be fine." I told him.  
  
This was fine for then, and he morphed back. We managed to walk to the bus station, where I had to tell Ax indefinitely to keep to himself.  
  
"Now, Ax, I need you to be quiet, if you make too much noise, someone will look at you funny." I told him right as we were getting on the bus.  
  
"I understand." He said, and said nothing more.  
  
When we finally got to the mall, we got out and went in. Ax was seriously overwhelmed. "Wow, so many people, do you confuse each other? You all look the same."  
  
"Yes, we do Ax, but what did I tell you about talking? And no, we don't get each other confused often. But it does happen." I grabbed his arm and led him slowly to RadioShack. It was difficult waving through all the people, and ax was always tripping.  
  
"Very sorry to hurt you, are you alright?" I asked when he fell right out of my hands.  
  
"I am fine, but two legs are very shaky." He said.  
  
I rolled my eyes. "I know, we have come to this conclusion, now shut up, we have a job to do." I walked into the videogame section, because that was what I liked. There weren't many games worth getting that I haven't already played or didn't hear sucked.  
  
As I was browsing through the games, deciding what was worth buying, I heard a loud siren going off. I rolled my eyes, stupid thieves, I thought to myself.  
  
I was in the midst of determining whether or not I would go in and help the store when I had a dreadful feeling. I looked up to see what I feared, Ax, with a pile of supplies.  
  
I quickly put the games back and walked over to where Ax was. He was looking around for me, and he couldn't find me.  
  
He had walked out of the store before paying and the detectors detected him 'stealing'. I stopped the guard before he got to Ax. "It's okay, I've got him." I reassured. Surprisingly it worked.  
  
I grabbed Ax by the Arm and pulled him back into the stores. The ringing stopped. "You have to pay for that." I told him in a stern voice.  
  
I took him up to the counter and grabbed each and every package and put it on the counter. There were various wires, connectors, fuses and stuff. You know, electrical stuff. I quickly grabbed a few plugs so if we ever got stuff that needed it, we would actually be able to plug them in.  
  
I paid for it all, it was like $100. I had plenty of money to go around. So I wrapped it up and left the mall.  
  
Ax, unfortunately, discovered the many uses of his face before we made it far. He stopped right outside of radio shack and started sniffing the air.  
  
"I smell something." He said. "What is it?"  
  
"It is just the food court, don't worry about it." I told him. I turned and walked to the doors. I just got to them when I had a horrible thought.  
  
"Hey, Ax, how do you plan on using a computer, I mean I don't have enough to get a low quality one, let alone a good one, especially by andalite standards." It was just a thought, but it was odd, there was no immediate response that completely brought us down as a technologically backward race. That was when I realized...  
  
I turned around, and of course, there was no Ax. I rolled my eyes and started running towards the food court, because that was where he said he could smell it. I knew that was where he was going.  
  
I ran through the crowd of people, making people get really mad at me. I kept hitting them with the shopping bag of electronics.  
  
"Hey!" "Watch it buddy!" I got from random people. I ignored them and pushed on in my quest.  
  
When I eventually made it to the food court, I saw nothing. No disturbances, no crowds, nothing. I had to look around before I found him. He was in line to the Starbucks. I was assuming he was just following the other people, because lot's of people were there. Therewere a few people ahead of him and I had plenty of time.  
  
I ran over there and just barely missed him.  
  
"Would you like caffeinated, or decaffeinated?" The lady serving the coffee asked.  
  
"Caffeinated." Ax replied calmly. He must have picked it up off of one of the people in front of him.  
  
I finally caught up to him and stopped him. "Don't worry about him." I told the girl behind the counter.  
  
Once again, I grabbed. [Now, Look here Ax. If you are going to be here with us, you really need to be more responsible. I am serious, you are going to get hurt, or lost, or something. Think of the fate of the Animorphs and the entire human race. What would happen if you were lost and ran out of time. I know you wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life in this shaky two legged body, so you would probably morph, and that would cause quite a lot of stress for us. Now quit it! Act like the mature andalite soldier you really are.] I said in thought speak. I was the only one who could speak when I was human.  
  
Ax seemed surprised by this. You could see the look in his eyes. I stared at him. He got the message. We both left the mall retaining a relative amount of sanity. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
  
Hello, My name is Gordon. I can't tell you my last name, but I can tell you where I live. I live in the forest, just outside of the town I used to live in. It is nice, I guess. I really don't have anything to do when I come home from work, so I train for fighting. Though I have never really needed to fight that way in the real world, it is nice to keep in shape.  
  
Me and Sam fight all the time. Just for fun. The two of us live in the house together. Sure, we get along just fine, but sometimes the company just isn't what I need after a hard day's work. You know?  
  
So we live there mostly alone. We have a pet bird, but he doesn't stay there long at a time. He is always going out to hunt all by himself, he just recently learned how to do that. His name is Tobias. He is a red- tailed hawk. Kind of a loner, that one is. But a nice guy all the same.  
  
We recently acquired a new attendant to our little habitat, but he doesn't stay inside for long periods of time. His name is Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthil. Kind of an odd name, I know, but he has a reason for it. He is an andalite. An alien.  
  
So there is our little household. Me, Sam, Tobias, and Ax (we call him that for short.) We are the Animorphs Alliance Outpost. Actually, we aren't I just made that all up. But we kind of are an outpost. Ax and Tobias are often Checking on people to know how to get back to the yeerks pool. Why, I don't know.  
  
Now, here's where the story get's weird. We aren't the only ones in this story. There are five others. Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Whitney, and Marco. All of which fight alongside us. We fight the yeerks.  
  
The yeerks are an alien race, Bent on the domination of the human race. Not the destruction, though. If they wanted to destroy us, they could easily do so. They have faster than light technology, ray guns, and a seemingly infinite fleet of soldiers and fighters. And they are all willing to die.  
  
These yeerks have instead come to earth to take over us and steal our bodies. They are simply little six inch long slugs, but they are so much more than that. I can only speculate on exactly how they do it, but buy entering out brain area through the ear canal, they can attach themselves to out brain and control all neural output.  
  
You see, the host does not die when this happens, it merely loses all control. A fate worse than death for some. But through this, they can also read your mind like a book. And since the yeerks chose the infiltration method over the guns blaring method, this is all they need to slowly take over the human race undetected. They can play the host perfectly and be like them in society. It is just that simple.  
  
And they want our bodies. All six billion of them. They have already completely enslaved the hork bajir, the taxxons, the Gedds, all interesting races in their own. The hork bajir are seven foot tall walking lizards with blades at their wrists, neck, legs, and at the end of their long tail. Fearsome looking things, but all slaves to the yeerks, not a single free one in the galaxy.  
  
The Taxxons on the other hand, are soft, mushy giant caterpillar looking things. They have legs like a centipede, the look of a giant yellow caterpillar, and the feel and smell of maggots smothered in dog shit, baby puke, and other putrid smelling things. You know, the ususal gross things, like rotting flesh. But that's okay, we rarely deal with them. We mostly have to fight hork bajir, they are the foot soldiers. Armed with a beam weapon at their side. A weapon that shoots beams that are incredibly destructive and explosive.  
  
And the andalites, Ax's people, try to stop them from going further. They have tried, but obviously have failed. I do not see any progress when attempting to come and help us now that we need it.  
  
Except one thing. One day, as ME, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Whitney, Jake and Marco were all walking home from the mall, we encountered a fallen warrior known as Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. He was an andalite prince, and he gave just us a great and powerful weapon. The ability to morph into any animal we can touch. Most andalites can do it, and now we could too.  
  
Don't get me wrong, the andalites aren't born with such a power. It was a technology they made to infiltrate yeerk ranks and such. Almost as good as the yeerks, but just like any technology or weapon, it works both ways. You see, there is a slight limitation to this technology which could be the downfall of it's user. You see, when the Andalite gave us this power, he told us never to stay in morph for more than two hours and seven minutes. (Go figure, who says andalite times are the same as ours.)  
  
So if you do, know this, you will be staying in morph forever from then until the day you die. Or until the animal's life span is over. Either way, you aren't likely to live very long.  
  
Unfortunately, the technology has taken it's own toll on one of us. That pet bird Tobias was not really a bird to begin with. Need I say more? Didn't think so.  
  
So, with our knowledge and power, we decided to do our part to help in this war. We have decided to fight, and with our limited power, we do quite a bit. Already we have infiltrated the yeerk pool and irritated Visser three. That is where the yeerks must go every three days to absorb nutrients or it will die. It can't feed while in it's host. Visser three is the yeerk general in charge of the yeerk operations here on earth. He has an andalite body. The only one as far as I know.  
  
Then we spied out a known controller, and found we could do nothing to help that family. After that, we really did something that might actually put them at a little caution. We managed to destroy a ship used for transporting important substances. Like they don't have others.  
  
Then, on the most recent bout, we captured Ax from his underwater prison. He was trapped there since the battle that stranded Elfangor on earth. He was in the dome of what he called a dome ship. Original, eh? The dome is a large grassy area that the andalites can frolic and play in when not preoccupied by intergalactic war, or something. I don't know. That's how Ax put it.  
  
Anyway, during that battle, we were ambushed and barely made it out with Ax. Sam also helped destroy two of the Yeerk Battle Cruisers on the water. The Visser was partially occupied by chasing me, so he never really got to go after Sam. I bet he would have loved to, though.  
  
That was fun, we all barely made it out of that one alive. Actually, Everyone but Me and sam made it out just fine. They left me behind as a sacrifice. But it was worth it, we now have an andalite friend to help us out in the tight spots.  
  
Me, Sam, and Tobias were all forced out of society. That was just the way things worked with the yeerks. They knew who we were, so if they found us, we were dead. And if they infested us, they would find the rest of the resistance and that would be it. No more mr free guy for us.  
  
Either way, they only found me actually. I do kind of feel guilty over that, but Sam says he didn't mind. They found me and asked my family who I hung out with when they caught them. They found that I hung out mostly with Sam and Tobias. You know, just in case I had told them about the invasion.  
  
By the time they figured it all out, Tobias had already been stuck in morph and had already lost his social life. Not that he had one to begin with. He was kind of a loner. Always getting picked on at school, being treated bad at home. He was left between an aunt and uncle that both shunned him. It was terrible, but there was no problem with him being a bird.  
  
So then, we thought maybe we could help Sam out. He was not with us at the time and knew nothing, so he would not give us away. Fortunately, we were wrong, and decided to go on with saving his life. We went to his house, and found he was bot there, he was at an outdoor paint ball place called area 51. Cool place, I had been there. But when we did eventually get him out of there, the yeerks left the place a pile of burning wood. A shame really.  
  
Anyway, we had to keep him for three days before we could be sure of his loyalties. But he didn't take well to this, so we had to try and tell him we were the good guys. You see, the reason he was so doubtful was because he had known of the invasion for three years now. And he knew a lot about the yeerks. Their past, future, and weaknesses. He even knew how to use some of the weaponry. Which was cool.  
  
How he knows this is a mystery, but it sounds pretty authentic, and has so far been accurate. He was the one who told us about the three day limit and such. He was well advised and he claims he did it by scouting. I don't see how. It would be really hard to creep up on these people. I have tried to, it didn't work. They are too secretive.  
  
Anyway, sam knows this and now he is with us. It would seem as if he was useless, not being able to morph or anything, but he has proved his real worth. He has telekinesis. The ability to move objects with his mind. And as it seems, not only objects, but himself as well. He can actually make himself fly, which is really cool. When he uses this power, his eyes glow red, so I know when he is cheating in a fight.  
  
He was really weak at first, but he is smart. He grew really quick. He went from only being able to move leaves and paper to being able to lift his own weight and more. The advantages to this is that is never tires as long as he can keep his concentration. So the intense concentration can make him powerful.  
  
So Jake, our un-proclaimed leader decide that it would be safer to just have him stay off the field. Sam, being the guy he was, decided to make his own rules. He fought with us and helped us get out of many problems that we had. He was a valuable asset.  
  
Jake was the responsible. He was probably right to keep sam away, but that was then. This is now, and Jake rarely says anything anymore.  
  
Marco is Jake's best friend. They hang around a lot together and often play video games. Marco is definitely a critical thinker. He is the first to get us from point A to point B. Not to say I don't too, but I happen to have a different and odd agenda. He does everything straightforward, casualties aside.  
  
Rachel and Cassie are exact opposites' though. Cassie s the environmentalist tree hugger humane vet extrodinaire. Rachel, on the other hand, made a lifestyle out of shopping and proving people wrong. You see, Rachel is Tall, Blonde, and Beautiful. But that isn't just my opinion, ask anyone at school. She is like the warrior princess. That's right, I'm talking about the famous almighty Xena. I could definitely see her fighting a war by herself with her little pupils following her around everywhere.  
  
Whitney, on the other hand, is a very smart person. Not ruthless, but she can understand the simple concept of sacrifice and the need to fight. Doesn't mean she tries to find a reason to fight, but she definitely can fight when it is needed.  
  
I know, I have tried to fight with her, she has a will stronger than steel. Just imagine trying to win an argument with someone who could make you change your mind about religion if you were a born again Christian. I know, she did just that. She is the best debater I have ever known. She knows all the facts without doing any sort of research, and knows how to use it indefinitely to her advantage. Very smart thinker there.  
  
Enough about her intelligence, Whitney was almost like an exact mix between Rachel and Cassie. She tended to have a very soft spot for animals and the environment, while at the same time, she saw no reason to stop from doing what's right, even if it did hold casualties. She was short, with long black hair. Cute, though.  
  
She was a gymnast, with Rachel. They were in the same gym club. The one operating out of the school, actually. He mother was a biology teacher at the school there.  
  
And that's where I got my fake ID. There was a little license bureau and ID place in the basement. Apparently, they do all their own ID cards and stuff. With the help of Marco, they were actually able to make me an identity to use so I could get an official name. They hacked into the files, took my picture, and gave me a license.  
  
I was 18 year old Josh Blanchett in normal society. Every day, when people are at school, I was working at a trucking company called DeJong's. I worked in the warehouse. I morphed into someone I acquired to work there. Every hour or so I would stay out in the warehouse when nobody was looking and demorph and remorph. It was pretty simple.  
  
I made enough money there to keep Me and Sam in food, clothes, and have money saved up. I didn't know what for yet, but I was sure it would come in handy. To this day, I have almost a thousand dollars saved up. It was a good thing, too, or I would have ben out of luck when Ax helped us with our little problems.  
  
You see, apparently we had more right at our fingertips than we had thought. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
When we finally did get home, we had to get Ax to untangle everything and explain what he was doing with it. He tried explaining it, but we got lost really quick, so we just had him drop the subject.  
  
"Hey, Ax." Sam said. "I know it is an odd time, but I have to wonder. You are an alien, and obviously you know more about the secrets of the universe than we do, so I was thinking maybe you could explain how this telekinesis works."  
  
[Ah, yes. I have been meaning to talk to you about that. I do not know much, but I have heard of such cases. There have been only a couple of cases ever reported on the andalite home world. And they have never been really strong cases.] Ax told him.  
  
"I would figure that." Sam said, "Of course it's rare, but do you know how it works?"  
  
[We have never been able to find a biological relevance regarding the condition. There is no anatomical difference or abnormality. Our scientists have theorized that the bodies have an attachment to Zero- dimensional space. Similar to the link that is created when our ships fly into Zero space. But that is theorized. What do you know about it so far, and what are your limits?] Ax asked.  
  
Sam thought about that for a minute before answering. "Well, I do know that it takes a whole lot of concentration, and it seems more powerful when it is on a generic thought. You know, like 'push that' or 'lift this'. When I do that, I can do it to the power that I could in my normal body."  
  
[Yes, that would be so. Simple commands are simple to give and are performed with ease. There is less concentration required. What about lifting various objects, is that difficult?]  
  
"Not really. It depends. On how far apart they are and if they are all doing different commands. Example." Sam said. His eyes glowed red and he raised his hand, palm up.  
  
Almost instantly, all the contents of the bag floated up to about eye level. They were all bunched up in a big ball. "See, this is easy. No differences, they are all just there. But if I..." They all spread out and started spinning in different patterns. They all kind of fluttered on and off between spinning and not spinning. Like he couldn't decide what he was doing. Over a short time, they all managed to spin at the same time and in the same direction. Then they all dropped.  
  
"That was a lot harder than it looked. I was able to keep them all up, but having them spread apart made it difficult to see and concentrate on all of them at once, that is why only half of them were moving at any given time. When I finally did get a hold of them all, I was only able to make them move in one direction or I lost control."  
  
[I see. So it is still rather difficult for you. Though you have surpassed many of the people before you. That is very impressive. When did you learn that you had such an ability?] Ax asked. Which actually bothered me. Sam never really told me that. I never asked.  
  
"Well, I did about a year ago when I got really mad. I was sitting at home and my parents pissed me off. I sat there, staring at them, wanting to just hit them or something, when a pencil on the table just snapped in two. I took no note of it at the time, but people around the house and at school started making me angrier without meaning to. I had an emotional problem, back then. Every time it happened, something like a glass or a pencil would break. It wasn't until I actually sort of wanted it to happen that I realized it was me all along.  
  
"I got mad and wanted to just wreck something, then my best wolf candle went flying into the wall. At the same time, I saw a flash of red, and that was when I knew. For the rest of that month, I tried to not let my emotions get the better of me, and stuff like that stopped happening. So I tried to control it. It didn't work for a while, but the more I tried the more I could notice the little changes that would happen, like the rippling of the water in the glass.  
  
"So over the course of that year, I kept trying and practising with it and getting better. I could manage to actually lift pencils and such. It was cool. It wasn't until I saw these guys that I started to use it all the time. Being out here, I practise every day and I got really good. I have reached a limit in my talents. I can only brute lift what I can do by my physical body. I can push harder, but that is unfocussed. So I think I can find a way to manipulate it."  
  
[That sounds about right. It would take about a year to get good at it.] Ax said.  
  
"Well, I have another question. Why me? What makes me so special?"  
  
[I have heard a theory that says that is has something to do with a random chance. Once again, this is a theory andalite scientists have come up with. They think that it is completely random, they are given life at such an consequent time that they are immediately bonded to Z-space, and therefore they can manipulate the strands of time. Or something similar to that. That was in theoretical sciences, I rarely payed attention.]  
  
"Fell asleep at school, huh?" I laughed.  
  
"That's funny." Sam agreed.  
  
[Well, theoretical sciences is not proven, so it is not important. And there was a particular female sharing that class with me.] he said.  
  
I couldn't help but laugh. That was funny. "Ax, that is one for the books!" I said.  
  
[One for the books?] He asked. He didn't understand the meaning of the phrase.  
  
"It means that we will have to remember that. It was funny." Sam explained.  
  
[Yes, can we get back on subject?] Ax asked politely. I still was laughing, but I was capable of letting Ax continue.  
  
"I do have another question. I have noticed when I fight without using any forms of telekinesis, I can still feel like I can do more than I could do before. Like I can jump higher, punch harder, and move faster. I also have faster reflexes. Do you know why?"  
  
[Well, I would assume that on a subconscious level there would be some sort of a help given by the telekinesis. As you move, your brain would register that and use it as help. So you would be using it constantly.]  
  
"And I can feel the world around me. Like I know what is happening when I even can't see it." Sam said.  
  
[Once again, this is theoretical, but that is maybe due to the Z- space connection. If that is true, than of course it would make sense. You would feel the objects and their links as well and your brain would be able to interpret it subconsciously. But do not expect this to be completely true, this is all theoretical.]  
  
"It is better than I have, and it sounds about right." Sam said. "But I do have a question about him. I believe he also is in the beginning forms of telekinesis, but he doesn't believe me. I would like to know. But he seems to be able to see what I am doing before I do it. He can see what I think. And counter me before I think about doing the moves. Just curious."  
  
[Well, I would say he does have such a condition. But he is honing in on a different aspect of it. He has the sense and you have the power. It appears that he can literally read your surface thoughts.]  
  
[And I can do this, but only since I could morph.] I told him in thought speak.  
  
[Yes, that is suspicious. I am maybe thinking the superior mind you may have could trigger a telepathic connection to your friends and allow you to use such a method of communication even outside of morph. Like your subconscious was able to understand the workings of the telepathy and use it. I am confused though, I have never heard of such workings. Our species do not have need for mouth sounds to begin with. We have no mouths.]  
  
"Yeah, I would think so, I can see that. Anyways, I am not sure of this completely, but I have theorized that I can hear what people are speaking even when not directed at me. Try something at Sam and only Sam."  
  
He looked confused. [Sam, it is I, Aximili. Pretend you can not hear me.]  
  
"See, I heard that. Well, not heard."  
  
[I have not said anything yet.] Ax said. Trying to confuse me.  
  
"He didn't." Sam assured.  
  
"Yes he did." I said with confidence.  
  
[Than what did I say?]  
  
"You told Sam to pretend he didn't hear me." Ax looked surprised. "You see, I can only do it when I am thinking about it. Like if they are talking about something I want to know, then I think about wanting to know what they are thinking and I can hear it. But when I don't care, nothing comes in. I am like a telepathy radio and I can only hear anything when I am focussed, but nothing comes in when I am not tuned."  
  
[I can understand, but I do not see the need for such an ability. Back at home, many of us can hear when it is not directed at us, so we get something similar to sound here. Anyone can hear within reasonable range. It is considered rude to speak in a closed dialogue. Maybe you are adopting common andalite traits.] he suggested.  
  
"Or maybe..." [I'm psychic.] "I don't know. Either way, I am not going to abuse it until I can control it more." I told them. I didn't know why, but I was almost swelling with pride. If what Ax said was true, then I was going to eventually as strong as Sam when it came to unarmed combat. But, unlike Sam, I could morph, so I had no immediate use for it. I could morph, and Jake would want me to do that. It was more reliable.  
  
What was I thinking? Of course I would use it. I just had to practise. Nothing more to it. I would use morphs until I could master it, then me and Sam could do missions together, and we could kick some ass. That would be cool.  
  
That was what I thought at the time, anyways. Little did I know that it would be a long time before I was able to use what Sam did. It would be a while before I would understand the truth. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
We managed to settle down and get back to work. Ax went off into his own little world and started working diligently on the power source and the wires. How he did it was completely baffling, but he was doing well. It looked horrible, but he said it would work perfectly once he was done.  
And who was I to judge. He knew more about stuff like that than I did, and he wanted to help us and get it done.  
The thing that confused me was why he wanted so badly to get this done. I had nothing that would hook up to any power source. I made sure to get the plugs though, so when it was done, we could fit an appliance into them. I wanted a refrigerator so we could actually keep meat and other good food from going bad.  
That and a stove or a microwave so we could actually cook something rather than eating cold everything.  
"You sure this is going to work?" Sam asked.  
"I hope so. It is all we can hope for." I answered.  
"But I seriously don't see how. I mean seriously. He said something about compound light or something. How can you turn compound light into energy?"  
"Think solar power, I guess. It turns solar light int electricity. Maybe it is something like that. Besides, light essentially is one form of energy. Maybe the crystal simply is a converter to turn light energy into another form. Like a windmill uses kinetic energy from the wind to turn it into electrical energy. Maybe the crystal does something like that. Don't forget, we are working with far superior technology."  
"I guess so."  
We both shut up and waited as Ax worked on the device. Me and Sam both decided that he would be better off alone, our pointless chatter was probably irritating and distracting.  
As we walked outside, we saw Tobias flutter onto the corner of the house roof.  
[How's Alien boy doing?] he asked.  
"About as good as bird boy." I told him. Then laughed. "He's doing just fine. He is hard at work on that little thing and we decided his superior knowledge was better left alone."  
"Yeah, we were talking about my telekinesis and his mind reading." Sam told him.  
[What did he say?]  
"I don't know completely. Something about random chance and a connection to Zero space." I said.  
[The same zero space that allows faster than light travel?]  
"Something like that." Sam said. "And he says that Gordon almost definitely has it, but he is using a different aspect of it. Between the two of us, we are a complete unit. Though he's never heard of the thought speak radio. You know, when he hears you say something to me when it is not directed at him."  
[Oh, so that's good news.] Tobias said.  
"Let's hope so. I still Can't use it, even if I try." I said. "Watch." I squinted my eyes and stared at a rock on the ground. I stared and grunted and even pointed my finger at it and imagined what I wanted it to do and nothing happened. Point proved.  
"I can see clearly that you can't do it now. But at the same time, neither could I at first. Only when emotions raged. Same with you. You only did it so far when we were fighting. It was clear then. Maybe if I get you mad enough..." He trailed off.  
  
I left it alone. I didn't really want to talk about it. At the time, I decided I wanted to just be calm about everything and not get too excited. Besides, it obviously didn't work. How many times did I have to tell them that.  
I walked over to the tree and thought of something, a possibility maybe.  
"Hey, Sam."  
"What?" he asked.  
"We have lot's of room here. I was thinking maybe we could use this land to plant some gardens and stuff. Vegetable gardens and stuff, so we don't have to spend as much on food. And that way, we could just eat the food right off the plants, that way they don't go bad."  
Sam just shook his head. "Sorry. I can't do that. We don't want too much attention. We aren't far enough away from civilization to risk something like that. An alien is one thing. If anyone see's that, they will probably run away. But if they see lovely little gardens and windmills and stuff, then they are going to be attracted to the thought of damaging such a place for fun. Lousy little runts."  
"I see. I do understand. I guess you are right." I said. I was kind of disappointed, but he was indefinitely right. That would attract bad people.  
"I have an idea, how about we try to do pushups, to see how far we can go before we collapse." I suggested.  
"How about no. I have a better idea." He said as he flopped down and stared at the sky. I followed closely and fell on my back.  
Tobias left soon thereafter. [See ya later!] he called.  
"Say hi to Rachel for me!" I called back.  
[Will do!]  
So there we were. Laying there bored out of my mind. There was absolutely nothing to do right then. We had no mission, I had no work today, and I didn't have enough money to go out and buy anything that we needed, so I was stuck at home with nothing to do. Maybe when he had it ready and I got a few more pay cheques I could buy a refrigerator. Just a small one though.  
Then it actually occurred to me. Why did Ax needed a computer?  
"Hey Sam, has it occurred to you why Ax may need a computer so badly?"  
"Yeah, he wants to speak with his people. I thought you had already figured that. It was quite obvious." He said.  
"But why is it so much of a big deal?"  
"Why don't you ask him?" He suggested.  
I decided to take him up on his offer. I got up and walked back to the house. When I got in there, I saw Ax still concentrating hard on the little device. He only took the time to swivel one of his stalk eyes to look at me.  
I continued to look at him.  
"Hey Ax?" I asked.  
[If you don't mind. I am terribly busy right now. I can talk later.] he said. Clearly distracted.  
"Well, I was wondering, what was the big hurry when you said you wanted a computer?"  
He stopped for a moment and looked up at me with his main eyes, keeping a stalk eye on the device. [I want a communication device. I thought we discussed this.]  
"I think we did. But I was not completely sure of the reason. I mean, I don't think a little computer is going to send messages across Zero space and stuff." I said.  
[But with a few simple adjustments, I can turn even a weak human computer into a computer that can do just that. It isn't really that difficult.]  
"I guess, but you still haven't told me why you want to contact them so badly. Is it to maybe tell them of the invasion here?"  
[Oh, they know about the invasion here. How do you think I got here? No, I want to go home.] 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
The next day I was walking with Rachel, Jake, Whitney, and Marco. Tobias was at home with Sam and Ax, getting more details. We were walking along the suburbs towards the outskirts of town to go to Cassie's.  
  
Normally, I would never go out in public with the rest of the Animorphs, but I was Josh right now. Safely in morph and devoid of any powers.  
  
Apparently, since Ax wanted to go home, and that rose some issues. And Marco cared about nothing more than to talk about his heroics. Apparently he saved a guy who opened fire on him.  
  
"So there I was, I was superman, I was batman. I saved this guy from an angry mob of like ten people, all with guns and stuff. I morphed gorilla and totally mopped the floor with them."  
  
Rachel just shook her head. "Marco, why did you feel the need to morph gorilla. All you had to do was walk into the alley and show them your face and they would all run."  
  
"I know, they would know the mighty power that was Marco!" He struck a heroic pose and smiled.  
  
"No, they would be terrified by the horrible sight. That face could haunt dreams forever." She shot back. Then smiled her super-model smile. Did I tell you about Rachel? The warrior princess, deadly beauty. And that's why we call her Xena. She pretends to hate it, but she is flattered.  
  
"Heh." Marco said, then continued, "So, after I am done with the punks, I go over to the guy to offer help, then he pulls out a gun and starts shooting at me. I lose the milk and everything in the process as I get my hairy little ass out of there."  
  
"So, what are we here for?" Whitney asked. Seriously getting bored of Marco's rabble. "I hear there's some pretty important news. Or Gordon wouldn't be here."  
  
Jake pointed a finger lightly, "Josh." He corrected.  
  
"Oh, right. Josh." She said. "But either way, we needed to get together, so what is it?"  
  
We continued walking, Rachel practising her flips and stuff. I decided to break the news to them myself.  
  
"Ax wants to go home." I told them clear and simple.  
  
Rachel stopped. "What?"  
  
"You're kidding, right?" Marco said.  
  
"No, we are not. Ax wants to go home, we don't know why. We thought it was to tell his people of the invasion here, but they already know. We do know how, though." Jake said.  
  
"And how is that?" Rachel asked. "Hitch a ride on the first interplanetary plane out of here?"  
  
I laughed. "If only it was that simple. Look, he has a plan to actually steal a yeerk spacecraft. A bug fighter."  
  
Marco laughed. "That alien is crazy. What do you do? Call up Visser Three on the telephone and ask him for one?"  
  
"Something like that." I said. They all got blank faces.  
  
"How?" Whitney asked. "I mean, think about it. We don't have the technology, we don't have the power, nothing. Seriously, how would we go about doing that?"  
  
"We call him up on the telephone. Ax says with a few electrical supplies, he can make a communication device to call to the yeerks." I told them.  
  
"And can this guy make everything?" Marco asked. "I mean, do we really need to do this? Do you have a plan that doesn't involve that thing?"  
  
"Well, yeah. The plan was that he would make the thing, and call the mother ship in distress to send down a ship. One hork bajir, one taxxon. We lie in wait while the ship sets down and take it. Ax can get away in that while we morph something else and never be seen again." Jake explained.  
  
"The only problem is that he needs a computer to program the device to the ship's signals. And none of us have a powerful enough computer to give up. He says he can turn any one of our computers into a supercomputer, but none of us have even a weak computer. That is the only problem." I said.  
  
"And where do you plan on getting a computer?" Rachel asked.  
  
"I have a computer." Whitney said. We all looked at her surprised. We didn't actually expect one so soon. "Well, my mother works at the school. She could get me one of the older ones out of the computer lab. It wouldn't be hard. The school is pretty top notch, so they are commonly replacing old computers with new ones."  
  
I couldn't help but smile a huge smile on my face. This was going to be easier than I thought. Really easy, actually.  
  
"You are serious, you can actually get one that easy?" I asked.  
  
"Sure. All I have to do is tell her I am going to work on it as a science project with some buddies. She will even take it wherever I want her to. She is really cool that way."  
  
I was definitely impressed. Then maybe we could even get games and stuff on the computer after he was done with it. Imagine the games we could play on that thing. No internet though.  
  
By the time we had completely finished talking, we were just arriving at Cassie's front yard. My time was about up, so I demorphed and remorphed on the way up. It was a long driveway. You know how those farm houses are for driveways.  
  
Anyway, when we got there, Cassie was waiting for us outside as she cleaned some of the horses fields. We told her the details. She was impressed but concerned. She was just as critical of the plan as Marco was, even though they were exact opposites.  
  
"And who says they don't send more?" Cassie asked. "What if they decide to send backup?"  
  
"It's a bug fighter. Chances are you can't get enough on one of those to fight all of us off. We will be there for support." Jake explained.  
  
"Yes, but who says they will send only a bug fighter?" Cassie suggested. "Okay, sorry, you guys are right. This will be fine. Besides, I have no problem helping the guy. He is running in the forest just at the end of the farm. I have told him if he goes anywhere else, people could possibly see him and report to the wrong people. He only stays on Gordon's meadow and our property. My parent's don't often go into the forest, so he should be safe."  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe we should go see him, to make sure we have the right idea of how this is going to work." Whitney said. Always the perfectionist.  
  
"Sure, he's right there." She pointed out to the tree-line. I could just barely make out a blue figure under the shadows of the edge of the trees.  
  
[Stay there!] I called to him. He was too far away to yell out loud. And Tobias wasn't anywhere around. So I used my thought speak.  
  
We walked out and met up with him.  
  
[Hello, what may I do for you?] Ax asked.  
  
"Just Checking up with this plan of yours." Whitney said.  
  
[it is simple.] He said. [I have to get a primitive human computer and some parts for a distress beacon. I can program the beacon to call a distress signal to the yeerk mother ship to send a bug fighter to retrieve me. I kill the hork bajir and taxxon, steal the ship, and blast into Z- space before the yeerks truly catch onto what was a perfect plan.]  
  
"Okay, now do you have all the supplies except the computer?"  
  
[No, I will need to collect supplies before I create the beacon. I can modify some of the objects that I have seen in the large building to successfully create the beacon. It is fairly simple. From what I have heard, I can get these supplies tomorrow.] tomorrow was Saturday. Horray for long weekends.  
  
Things were looking good for everyone, when Ax said something a little unnerving... [Though there is one thing I will find difficult to obtain.]  
  
"And what is that?" I asked, somewhat concerned.  
  
"Yes, I thought you could get everything." Jake accused.  
  
Marco didn't look too impressed either.  
  
[I could, if I had the time. Though I do not. Even I could not create a Z-space transponder. That I would need to steal.]  
  
"You didn't tell us this." Marco said. "Why did you wait until the last minute?"  
  
[It is not the last minute. And I had to think about possible consequences and I had to take certain variables into consideration. It was not until just now that I decided it would be quicker and easier to just steal one from a high ranking yeerk here on earth. One that would normally communicate with Visser three on a regular basis.]  
  
"Well, isn't that just peachy." Marco said snidely.  
  
As much as we all hated it. That was the final decision and there was nothing we could do to stop it. By the looks of it, Ax was going home and maybe he would bring help back. All I could say was that the possibilities were great. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
On Saturday, Jake and Marco took Ax to Radio Shack again, hoping to have better luck with him than we did. They asked me, Sam and Tobias to stay on the roof in case something went wrong.  
  
I had to morph to Falcon and Sam had to fly up there by himself. When I got there, I immediately demorphed and saw sam sitting there, talking to Tobias.  
  
"Well, I guess this party will begin soon." He said as I became fully demorphed. We were all right by the skylight waiting for Marco and Jake to give the ok symbol.  
  
They asked us to watch them until they came out, in case something happened. In case he did what he did with us again.  
  
So we stood there, looking over the skylight into the food court. There was a bunch of skylights over the entire mall.  
  
The vent from the food court was right beside us so we got the irresistible smell of Cinnibon, Chinese food, and other assorted grilled and barbecued food. It smelled good, but it was distracting. I ended up focussing on the food and drooling on the glass rather than looking for Jake and Marco.  
  
"Ewwww." Sam laughed as I let a big drip of drool fall down the slanted glass.  
  
"What?" I said, appalled.  
  
"You just drooled over the entire glass. Food already made it's way to the stomach, or are you just going a little retarded?" Sam asked, then started laughing.  
  
"Shut up. It happens. Like you've never drooled." I sat back and crossed my arms.  
  
"Sorry, it's just that you always drool. All the time. Can't your brain focus on two things at once?"  
  
[Come on, not even I drool. Tobias added.  
  
I looked at him funny and asked, "Do birds even have saliva?"  
  
[Of course. Most things do. It's just a first step in the digestive process. And since I can only eat meat, I need a lot of it. Maybe if I spit, it will burn you. he opened his mouth and screeched. There was no spit. [Did I get you?  
  
I couldn't help but laugh. "Tobias you've gone nuts."  
  
"Maybe he's high." Sam suggested.  
  
[Yeah, I'm higher than a kite, literally. he laughed again.  
  
"This group has gone to the birds." I said. I continued to laugh. It was just really funny at the time.  
  
"Anyone seen Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'?" Sam asked, then laughed again.  
  
After we all settled down, I leaned back on the glass and looked back into the food court. They were still nowhere to be seen.  
  
After a while, I started looking around again in all the other areas. Me, Sam and Tobias all split up and went to different skylights. Eventually, I did see Jake, Marco and Ax They were all were going up the escalator to the RadioShack. It was just a few stores down.  
  
They went in and bought their stuff. It took them about ten minutes to get the supplies. When they got out and Ax just kinda veered away, staring at all the pretty lights. Constantly stumbling, he slowly made his way back to the escalator. I looked back and saw Jake and Marco frantically searching for a missing Ax.  
  
"Well, Tell him where he is." Sam suggested. Duh, how could I be so stupid?  
  
[Jake, he is halfway down the elevator. I informed him. Jake looked up at me and shielded his eyes, then he grabbed Marco and dashed over to the rail beside the escalator. Ax was just a the bottom, drinking coffee again.  
  
Jake and Marco dashed down the stairs after Ax, pushing past old midgets and elderly cripples to get to him.  
  
[AX! I yelled. [STOP NOW! I yelled. He was really pissing me off with this crap. We really didn't need him to be messing with this. [Ax, you are a soldier.....ACT LIKE ONE!  
  
I saw Jake and Marco get to the bottom of the escalator to see that they couldn't see Ax. Come to think of it, neither could I from the skylight I was in.  
  
"Ax is over here in the food court." Sam informed me.  
  
[It looks like he is enjoying himself. Tobias added. I got up and went over to the skylight that they were both looking in.  
  
And there he was, alone in the food court, was Ax. Running from table to table eating all the leftovers. All the sane people had pulled away leaving him alone. It was a mess, if I say so myself.  
  
It wasn't long before the mall security had caught up to him and were attempting to get him to stop and settle down. Jake and Marco had just got there and were running towards him, hoping to calm him down as well. Neither party was succeeding.  
  
And then Ax must have got scared, because he started running. Or at least trying to. He was stumbling over his own feet.... and that's when he got really scared.  
  
You see, andalites have four feet, and are unsteady when only on two. And as I stared at him, he began to grow blue and tan fur all over his body while growing a tail and hind end. This was going from bad to worse. First Ax was being immature, now he was morphing in front of an entire crowd of interested onlookers and civilians.  
  
As soon as it was made obvious that he was morphing, a few people in the crowd started pulling away and chasing after him. I assumed they were controllers trying to kill him.  
  
As the chase was on, Ax cut the pressing clothing off his body with the still emerging tail blade. Then the manic really caught on.  
  
"Oh, crap!" Sam said as he got up and went to the next skylight. "They are headed to the grocery store!" I got up too and met up with him in the big skylight over the middle of the grocery area.  
  
It was a little while before Ax made it there. By then, he was a full andalite with a shirt on running through the mall. He eventually had the entire store empty. Then he was all alone until Jake and Marco caught up to him. It was just the three of them now.  
  
For some reason, nobody was coming in after them. They used this time to look around for an exit. Unfortunately, there was only one way out, and that was to where an angry mob was probably waiting for them.  
  
"They're screwed." Sam said. "Unless they morph."  
  
My eyes lit up. I had an idea. [Hey guys! I have an idea. You know the seafood section? Go there. There should be live lobster there. You can morph to one of those! I said.  
  
They all looked at each other with a look of horror, but they eventually gave in and ran there. I could just barely see them when they got to the seafood section. Which kinda sucked. I could only see flashes of them as they began the morph to lobster. And I let my imagination take care of the rest of it. It was a horrible image, but it worked.  
  
It took a good ten minutes to have the cops finally make it into the grocery area. And when they did, it was apparent that they were already morphed. Because there was no hassle. The Cops looked around the store for another ten minutes until they decided that there was clearly no andalite around.  
  
After this, we had to wait around for another half hour until the people were able to get back in, although people were constantly going in and out. There was no real chance to get out of there.  
  
This was when I saw the flaw in my master plan. You see, there was going to be no way out. Between the cops and curious onlookers, there was no window of opportunity. This became painfully evident when an hour into the ordeal, the grocery store was opened to all again. Hundreds of people were in and out all the time.  
  
[Jake, I don't think this is looking good. People are in there all the time now, like nothing has happened. I don't know how to get you out of there. I told them.  
  
[Join the club. This blows, can't you make a distraction? Jake asked.  
  
[I wish I could, but what could I possibly do to distract an entire shopping mall? Short of morphing to an andalite..... I trailed off, thinking that could maybe be just the thing. Aliens again. Then, of course, I realized why that wouldn't work. I would have no place to hide in the middle of town filled with controllers. It just wouldn't work.  
  
[What was that? Marco asked. ['Cause if you have an idea, that would be great. I don't  
  
[Nothing. I said.  
  
[It wouldn't work. Tobias added. [There is no way. Where would he go? What would he do? Morph human then expose our fraud. No way, we need to find a different way. Tobias Fluttered over to me and sat on my shoulder.  
  
"Don't Poop." I told him. He just stared at me with his intense hawk glare. I could see sam crack a smile off to the side of me. But this was no time to screw around.  
  
[Well, I am fresh out of ideas. Jake said. [We definitely need a distraction. Sam, Can you make a bomb in less than an hour?  
  
[Jake, now you are talking crazy. There's no way. "But Sam, can you? Just enough to do some sort of terrorist threat. People are wimps and will run away from anything." I switched so only Sam and Tobias could hear me.  
  
"Well, no. I couldn't get there and back in an hour. Sorry." Sam answered.  
  
Crap. We were really in deep shit this time. No way out unless we let ourselves known. And that wasn't happening, not yet.  
  
[There are 54 earth minutes left in morph. Ax said.  
  
[Ax, they're your minutes too now, and how are you able to do that? Marco asked.  
  
[I can tell time. It is an andalite sense, trained and improved by training. It is especially useful in situations like this. You see, we have a magnet sensitive....  
  
[That's okay ax, we don't have time for discussions now. We need to get out of here. Jake said. [Wait, what's this?  
  
[What? Tobias asked, clawing up my shoulder.  
  
[I am being lifted up and my claws are being held shut. Jake answered.  
  
[Wait, me too. Marco said.  
  
[I am also being lifted out of the water. Ax.  
  
That was the window of opportunity. [Guys, stay together. I will get you.  
  
"I don't think they are going anywhere, they are lobster. Good with coleslaw." Sam said. Either way, we need to find the next person leaving here with a bag full of lobster." Sam levitated off the ground and flew to the ridge of the building and waited, looking over the side.  
  
I began to morph to peregrine falcon and Tobias took off from my shoulder. I was almost instantly morphed, and I flew to the side too. I saw nothing.  
  
"Maybe you should call them, Tobias, see if they can help?" Sam suggested.  
  
[Jake, Marco? Can you tell where you are? Tobias called. No answer.  
  
[Maybe they've already gone? I thought.  
  
"No, not enough time. Maybe they've passed out from lack of water?" Sam said.  
  
If that was the case, we had to do this on our own. That would suck. But with our laser sharp eyes, we could see the bag with lobster in it.  
  
It took another ten minutes to see any interesting bags. I saw one with a bunch of lobster and ice. It was a thick bag. [I think that's it. I told Tobias.  
  
[I think so too. and we were all off. Sam hovered and we flew, following the car the girl that had it was in. We were going to attack them in the parking lot, but there were too many people in the parking lot. Damn I hate people. Always getting in the way of heroes.  
  
I lost track of time, but I was sure there could only have been like fifteen minutes left in the morph when we finally hit one of the suburbs at the edge of town. The person went inside and took the groceries with her. We were at a loss again. How to plan an animal attack on a suburb at 5 o clock in the afternoon?  
  
That question was quickly answered as a loud yell came from inside the house. [AHHHHHHHH! Get Me out of here. I heard Marco yell.  
  
[We have approximately 12 minutes left in Morph. Ax said calmly. I guess they had awakened.  
  
[Well, screw this shit, I am getting out of here, I don't need to be a lobster the rest of my life. Marco said. Sam, Tobias and I were all on the roof, with nothing to do. We were clueless, I looked at Sam blankly and he looked back. (I was demorphed.)  
  
[Come on out through the door on the second floor, we can get you. I told them. There was a balcony that I could reach from the roof.  
  
[We have already demorphed. The human that had us is quite shocked to see us. He is obviously not a controller. Ax said calmly. I wondered if maybe he was trained to be calm in any situation.  
  
It was only a few seconds later when Jake and Marco burst through the dual doors. Ax following right behind. Sam and I helped lift Jake and Marco up onto the roof. They had already begun to morph feathers by the time I grabbed them. We both needed to get Ax, but his arms were just too weak. Sam helped me by using his Telekinesis.  
  
A few moments later, we were all in the sky flying away. Apparently, the ice in the bag knocked them out, so that was why they didn't respond. Then when she tried to cook them, the heat woke them up and they decided to demorph. They didn't have much of a choice.  
  
Either way, we were all safe and sound. The next day we had o go back to the store to retrieve the clothes and stuff they bought. They were all together hidden in one of the aisles in the fish section. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Later that week, the four of us were in our house in the forest. It was Me, Ax, Tobias and Sam. Actually, Tobias was off hunting at the time, so it was just the three of us. Ax was putting together the thingy the best he could and Sam was testing me.  
  
He actually wanted to fight me while I was wearing a blindfold. How stupid was that? I mean, it wasn't fair in the first place. Sam with the Telekinesis and stuff. But it wasn't that simple. He was going to take it easy on me. I was reluctant, as you could guess. Sure, I could think ahead, but how was I to do it with a blindfold?  
  
"Seriously, I need to see if what Ax says is true. If you can read surface thoughts or not." Sam said encouragingly.  
  
"Sam there is a huge difference between predictability and being psychic. Sure, that would be cool, but I don't want to jump anywhere. Can't we start lower?" I complained. I was in no rush to fight with a blindfold.  
  
"No, there is no lower step, and you have to start somewhere. Here." He pulled out a black strip of fabric. It was thick enough to cover and keep me from seeing when it was folded. He tried to put it on me but I backed away. "Oh, come on, Ax is over there creating a Z-space transponder and you can't train with a blindfold? Bruce Lee could do it."  
  
"Yes, but Bruce Lee dedicated his life to this kind of thing and he had better reflexes than I do."  
  
"Oh, quit whining and put it on. If you want to get stronger, then we need to start somewhere. And if what Ax and I say is true, than you could have the same thing that I do. And even though what you seem to have already is just a case of good reflexes, then it is good to give it a try. Anything is good to try once."  
  
"I know, but if I was going to train, I wouldn't do it with you around." I told him.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Well, I know it's stupid, but I don't do well with an audience. I can fight and I can do many things, but as soon as you get me in front of an audience, I choke."  
  
"Yeah, and I'm not an audience. I am a teacher, here to help you, so why would it be a big deal? Who is there to say you are stupid? You could only have guessed how stupid I looked when I first tried to do the telekinesis. Waving my hands around and staring at pencils for hours. It looked stupid, but look what I can do now."  
  
"Alright, thanks for the inspirational speech. I will do it, and I will try, but don't expect miracles." I said reluctantly. The only reason I was hesitant was because I really hate trying to impress someone. It was like that at home. Housework, homework, anything like that I could do amazingly well, but as soon as someone was watching, I cramped up and couldn't do it. I hated pressure like that.  
  
That was why I was so stubborn. Sure, I agreed with Sam. Try anything once, but I was reluctant to have an audience, I like to do things like that on my own. 'But what better time to learn than now?' He said. I guess he was right.  
  
I allowed him to put the blindfold on. I couldn't see anything. "Okay, now, be kind." I said. "I don't want to be bloody when you are done with me."  
  
"Okay, I will start by simply punching for the chest. Same spot, but I will not tell you when I am going to punch. That will be the test 1. Here is where it will go." He said as he put his fist on my chest right on the breastbone.  
  
"Maybe a little higher. If you hit there, I will be winded." I told him. He raised his fist a bit to right over my heart. "That's better, and don't do it too hard at first, wait until I am better to put all your strength in it."  
  
"Alright, any time now." He informed me. Almost immediately, I put my hand out to stop him. I knew his habits, he would try to catch me off guard. But I put my hand up. And into my palm his fist went. "See?" He gloated.  
  
"No, I know you, that was typical." I said. "Try again." Once again, he punched immediately. But this time I only touched his wrist. He punched me square in the chest. I fell back a bit before catching my balance. You have little balance when you are blindfolded.  
  
"Okay, ready." I said.  
  
"Like I would have stopped. That was close though." He said. This time I waited. One, Two, Three, I knew he would wait. Hand Up! I raised my hand and caught his fist again. "Good one." He congratulated. But he wasn't done, right as he said 'one' his voice strained, and I caught another one.  
  
Then he punched three more in a row without saying a word. I caught all three of them.  
  
"I am glad to see you aren't just holding your hand up." He said.  
  
"What training would that be?" I asked.  
  
"Good, you are doing well, but that was just training."  
  
"Sam, that was no training, that was just thinking. I know you." I took off the blindfold. "Sam, you are predictable, hit first, before they are ready, then wait. Let them be confused. Right as they have lost all expectations, strike again, then keep attacking. That is just your strategy, I know you, that was no skill. The only one that bothered me was the second one. That wasn't in the plan, but I still reacted.  
  
"That was confusing, maybe it was reflexes and I could hear you, I don't know. I could hear you when you were talking, I could feel it in the voice. It strained when you were about to punch. So that one was obvious."  
  
"So maybe that is just it." Sam said. "Maybe it is a natural reaction to hostility. Maybe you are subconsciously reacting to it, but your body just doesn't respond yet? Anything is possible, best not to disregard a possibility. And besides, that was meant to be practice. The next exercise is more difficult. I will do a series of punches in a steady pattern, but to different areas and you have to stop them. You see, you will know when I will punch, so there will be no giving it away, but you will actually have to think of where it is going."  
  
"Are you suggesting I don't think?" I laughed.  
  
"No, just put the blindfold back on." He said. I did and a few seconds later he started punching.  
  
I missed the first few, got one, missed a bunch, then got a few in a row. I got pretty mad. This was accomplishing nothing.  
  
"Sam, this is doing nothing." I complained.  
  
"Just concentrate harder. If no other proof of this power is in you, it is the fact that you can hear what isn't directed at you. Come on, one small step at a time?" He pleaded.  
  
"Yes, but Sam, you have to think about it, not just do random things. That doesn't help. The people who speak telepathically are actually thinking these thoughts. I can't read what they keep to themselves."  
  
"Alright, I understand, I will pre-think out a pattern and go by it, maybe that will help." Sao said. And he did just that, because I started catching a lot more after that. Between me Concentrating a lot harder and Sam thinking more, I seemed to get most of them. Like six catches to one miss.  
  
This progression took about half an hour of training. It would seem boring, but once I started getting more and more, he started going faster and faster until it was actually interesting. It was odd. I was learning and I was getting excited.  
  
Another half hor passed, and I began to learn faster and faster. This learning curve was getting better and better until he would go many punches and not land a single one. It was very impressive. Eventually he decided it was time to up the ante.  
  
You see, I was getting more excited than I could tell. Sam and I kept to ourselves, but I could tell he was pretty impressed too. You have no idea how cool it is to be able to make that much of an improvement, and in only an hour. It was great, and I was borderline ecstatic. Eager to try something new.  
  
And that was just what Sam did. He decided to bring in the sticks. "Okay, now we are both moving. I want to see some action." He encouraged.  
  
"Sam, I am kind of being rushed here. I mean I just got to do that. And I need to practice elsewhere on my own before I go too far with you, as much as I want to learn quickly." I said. You know me, I was having fun, but I didn't want to go too far.  
  
"Gordon, you don't have any other time. We are doing this now." He demanded.  
  
I reluctantly decided to do it. Still being stubborn, that's me. No matter how good I was at something, I truly hated to show it off, unless I was immensely proud of it. Even then, I wouldn't go out of my way to show it to someone that didn't care. But this was going to help in the end, so I guess it was okay to go along with it.  
  
I put the blindfold back on and grabbed the stick. I started to walk backwards, anticipating some sort of an attack, but it didn't come, instead he talked to me.  
  
"Okay, this is the real thing, sort of. I am going to slowly slash at you from either side, from the top, each corner, or a stab. Pretty simple, but instead of catching it, I want to see you dodge or parry. You know, to stop it with te stick. Maybe even swipe at me." Like I didn't know what a parry was.  
  
And I would indeed swipe at him. "Well then, let's start." I said.  
  
I closed my eyes, even beneath the blindfold to keep from distracting me with lights. It was easier. He started by slashing at the right. I completely missed it, but I did manage to block the one to the left. Then, as I pushed the stick away, I figured out where it was going. I moved to the side and pushed it to the side, he tried to poke me.  
  
"What's with the predictability." I sneered. "Come on, be original."  
  
And rest assured he did. Slashed down on the left side of my neck. I missed that one, I tried to block one coming straight down on my head. It didn't work, it completely missed and hit me instead of the stick. It hurt.  
  
"Sorry, got you really hard there." Sam apologized.  
  
"It's alright. It's war, I am bound to get a few nicks and scratches. It's just in the cards." I tried to slash at him, but he wasn't where I thought he was, he was on the move from when he talked. Almost immediately, I felt a sting from the stick hitting me in the back. I turned around and dodged the one to the side, but missed the one on my head. It hurt, but it was a good hurt, like was learning.  
  
I say that because I knew it was coming and I tried to stop it, but I moved too slow. And on my head the stick hit. I turned around again, because sam was on the move. I could hear the footsteps.  
  
I moved my head to one side, then the other, trying to get an idea as to where he was coming from. I held the stick with both hands, waiting.  
  
He slashed at me again from the side, which I blocked. I then had to block a poke from sam. I flicked my wrist and simply brought it up by my face, tilting my head so it wouldn't hit me. He stabbed again, and I hit it off to the other side.  
  
He then slashed wide into my side. I blocked that, but he dragged it off the stick before I could stop him. He pushed forward and slashed me across the stomach and he dashed to the left side. I started to turn, but he had already spun around and was slashing at the side from behind. I simply stuck my stick in the way.  
  
I turned around to face him, even though I couldn't see him. In one fluid motion from when I turned around, I swiped wide and hit his stick. He was also slashing to the other side, so they hit with double potency. Sam's broke in half, mine was fine. I could tell by the weight and balance. After that, I did the same thing to Sam, dashing forward, dragging the stick along the stomach to pretend I was gutting him.  
  
I was behind him now, and he had no stick. I turned around and put my stick on his shoulder. I ripped off the blindfold in victory. I couldn't help but allow the grin to spread across my face. I loved it, and I was breathing rather heavily.  
  
"Good match, but I wasn't trying my hardest, so don't let it go to your head." Sam said, defending himself.  
  
"Sam, you were trying, and I had a blindfold on. I must be getting better than you." I said. I was proud of myself for doing that. Sure, it went a bit slower than most of our fights, but it was cool. I really could do that. I could read movements or something. Either way, it would be useful if I worked on it enough. 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
Me and Sam were both talking about ho was better when I looked over to see Ax still working tirelessly on the device. Sam and I took a short break to go over and see how he was doing.  
  
"So, how's it coming?" I asked.  
  
[It is nearing completion.] he answered.  
  
Sam raised his hand, like in school, "If I may ask, how near to completion is it?" He said 'near completion' in a very sarcastic way.  
  
Ax ignored him and pressed a few buttons and something popped up. [It is done.] he exclaimed as he held it up to his main eyes. Even his stalk eyes had to get a look at it.  
  
"Really?" I asked. "That was quick."  
  
[I have been working on it for many earth hours, that is quite quick to create a working yeerk distress beacon. But Yeerk technology is primitive to andalites.] he said smugly.  
  
"Yeah, those andalites are sure doing a good job in the computer business. Why can't you defeat the yeerks as easy. You seem to be better than them in every way." Sam Noted. I guess he was right, but I wasn't going to say it.  
  
Ax looked up sharply, [We don't have the military to control the problem in as many places as the yeerks have spread.] He said defensively.  
  
"Well, it seems the andalite intelligence just doesn't have what it takes to stop those inferior yeerks, huh.? I have a suggestion, how about you actually use some of that technology and intelligence that you andalites have so much of and do something about it?"  
  
[We simply do not have the numbers!] Ax was getting mad now. I guess he really respected the andalites.  
  
[That's enough.] I told sam in private thought speech. I didn't know why out of the blue he got so mad at Ax. That came out of nowhere and it surprised even me.  
  
"Sorry, I guess I got carried away. There is only so much you can do. Besides, it's no your fault." Sam apologized. It was also odd for Sam to shut up and apologize. He usually made his opinions known.  
  
[That's Better.] I told him again. He didn't look impressed. "Ax, Can I look at the device?" I asked, trying to get off the subject.  
  
Ax stared at Sam for a few seconds with his main eyes, before softening the look on his face and giving me the distress beacon. [I do not believe you would understand how I works, but be careful with it.]  
  
I lifted it up to my eyes. It looked like a remote control that had exploded. Like it was frozen in place, of course. Like it had melted in place. It was cool though. When I went to give it to Ax, the parts started moving.  
  
[Careful, you have activated it.]  
  
I got a look of panic on my face. "Umm, Ax. Didn't you say that the beacon would draw them to wherever it was set off?" I was spooked, but when I saw sam laughing at me, I realized something was wrong.  
  
"It didn't go anywhere. There is no Z-space transponder attached to it. The message didn't go far." He said as he shook his head and laughed.  
  
[The device doesn't work without something to send it. It is like a human cell-phone, only without any central station to send the call. That is why we need the Z-space transponder. It is the only frequency the yeerk mother ship accepts.] Ax Explained.  
  
I was relieved. I actually thought the yeerks would end up coming there to us. I was freaked, but I felt like an idiot because of it. "Shut up Sam." I said defensively. "I wasn't thinking properly." he was still laughing under his breath.  
  
[Alright, everyone. We finally have a real objective.] Tobias said as he swooped down.  
  
[Yep, and it is not going to be fun.] Rachel added as she flew to the branch beside Tobias. [what's that?] she asked. I followed her stare and saw she was looking at the distress beacon.  
  
[That's the distress beacon. Constructed to send the signal through the transponder.] Ax explained. He was doing a lot of that lately.  
  
[Well, I guess that is good. It does look a bit bigger than I thought.] Tobias said. [well, we just came by to inform you of the wonderful news. We have found someone who would likely have a z-space transponder or whatever.]  
  
"Well, Spill the beans." Sam said impatiently.  
  
[I was getting there.] Tobias continued. [Well, I hate to give a long story, but Jake asked me too so maybe Ax could make sure we were on the right track....]  
  
[It's Chapman.] Rachel interfered. [When I was in his basement, he was talking to a hologram of Visser three. We thought he was probably on the blade ship or mother ship.] Tobias stared at her.  
  
[That would make sense, but that transponder would be a little bigger than I made this beacon for. It takes more to transmit holograms than it does to transmit messages.] Ax said.  
  
[Yeah, Jake thought maybe it wouldn't be much of a difference they are yeerks, after all. But either way, it was a pretty technologically extensive room, so he would probably have others for different reasons.] Tobias said.  
  
Sam nodded his head. "Makes sense to me."  
  
[There is one problem, though. There isn't a solid way to go about getting in there. We were thinking cat, but chapman has dealt with the cat. There would be no more cat's getting in. Last time we went in there we caused quite a stir. We even had Visser Three pay us a visit. So that option is definitely out. They will be on guard now.]  
  
"So what s the plan? Fleas?" I shuddered at the thought. Jake had morphed to a flea. I wondered how he did it and didn't get sick.  
  
[No, bigger than that.] Rachel said. [But not much bigger.]  
  
For some reason, that didn't seem comforting.  
  
[Well, were thinking something along the lines of an ant.] She said.  
  
My heart instantly sank. I slowly shook my head in disbelief. "No." I muttered under my breath.  
  
"No what?" Sam asked. He had a concerned look on his face, but I could tell he didn't care. "What is wrong with you, you look absolutely spooked."  
  
[What's wrong?] Tobias asked.  
  
I was still shaking my head slowly. "I won't do it." I said simply. "Not an angels chance in hell."  
  
[Why not? We are all going in as a team, and I think you should come in too. What could go wrong, they're just ants. Ants are tough little creatures, you know.] Rachel said.  
  
I rolled my eyes. "I know they're strong, and I also know they're tough. Everybody knows that, it's just.....never mind. Rachel, you said it yourself, that room is small. And you already are filling it with you, Jake, Marco, Ax, Cassie, and Whitney. I won't fit, not comfortably, anyways." I changed the reason.  
  
I was going to say what I really thought, but I didn't think it would matter. You see, I watched a lot of Discovery Channel. I knew a little about rainforest ants. They were strong, tough, and incredibly vicious. So vicious that we wouldn't last five minutes if we met up with another group of ants, then we would be killed in a matter of seconds.  
  
I guess that was rainforest ants, so that was why I shut up. "I will act as backup, I guess." I told her.  
  
[Well, I guess we need to go.] Tobias said. He raised one talon and dropped an ant. [We only came here to get you to acquire that. I guess we will have to tell Jake you aren't doing it.] he let go of the branch and flew away.  
  
[See ya later.] Rachel said as she followed.  
  
"See ya tomorrow!" I yelled.  
  
As soon as they were gone, Sam grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around to look him face to face. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.  
  
"What?" I asked.  
  
"What are you hiding?" I stared him in the face and shook my head and told him everything. He just stared. "Why didn't you tell them?"  
  
"Because I know Jake, he is a pretty smart person. And Cassie is obviously in on this, so of course they know. They obviously believe they can handle it. I know I can't." I said simply. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
  
So, the next day, we were all standing around Chapman's house. Everybody was looking at me like they weren't impressed with me. I guess they thought I was a coward or something because I wouldn't morph to an ant. I guess they were right.  
  
I didn't talk about it though, I had my reasons and they were good ones.  
  
We were all there. Preparing to morph to the ant. I was to stay here in case Chapman came home. You see, he was out for the night at a family thing, and we didn't need him coming home to a basement full of kids. Me, Tobias and Sam were to stay out here and tell them if he came home, that way they could morph and get out of there quick enough. If they didn't then sam was there to keep them busy.  
  
"Comfortable up there, Sam?" I asked. He was in the tree with Tobias. I would have been there too, but I was staying down here for now.  
  
"Could you take us to the wall when we morph?" Jake asked.  
  
"Sure." I answered. "At least then I would be doing something to help anyways, huh." He just smiled a disappointed smile at me. So he was mad.  
  
"So, we going to do this?" Rachel asked.  
  
Marco shook his head. "I guess we have to. We all have to." He said the 'all' with a sarcastic tone. They were definitely mad at me. But still I decided not to press the issue.  
  
"Alright, are you all ready to go? I will be in the tree for now, so if you need me, I will be up there, not stepping on you." I told them. I figured that would be best.  
  
"Fine, but don't try and get in there with us, it is kinda dangerous as one ant. You could maybe pick up a morph and do it anyways." Jake said with a suggesting tone.  
  
I just shook my head. "Jake, I would be better off that you are at this point. At least then I would have a morph that would fit in with the area." I said, "Look, you may have got an ant morph, but you don't have one from here. In case you didn't know, ants are incredibly territorial, and immensely hostile. No matter what you think, they will not think twice about ripping you in half and ending your pitiful ant existence. And if you could morph in time, it would do you no good, because you would be underground. So no, I am not going to go in with you, you don't need me."  
  
They all glared at me, then began to morph. "Fine, if that's that's the way you feel, then maybe we don't need you. Right now, we have a job to do." Jake said, as he began to morph.  
  
I just stared at him for a while. He was a big boy, but I was stronger than him as a human. I watched as quite possibly the worst morph in history began. It was almost horrifying, if I hadn't seen many worse things in my life. Jake's skin turned black and hard. His mouth turned into mandibles, and he grew antennae. All the while he was shrinking.  
  
By the time he reached a height of a foot, I turned around and climbed the tree sam and Tobias were in. It was actually the tree I had to chase Fluffer McKitty up once. I liked this tree. It was nice.  
  
A few minutes later, they finished morphing and Tobias called them to see how they were doing. [Hey, you alright? How's the morphs?] he asked. There was no answer.  
  
I got up in a crotch of two branches and sat. I leaned my head against one of the branches and closed my eyes. [Come on guys, I've had just enough of your crap for tonight, just answer the bird.] I said in thought speech. It was kind of harsh, but I knew they weren't saying anything because I couldn't hear them.  
  
[Why aren't they answering?] Tobias asked.  
  
"Likely mad at Gordon." Sam said from higher in the tree. Despite knowing and even thinking about it, I forgot he was there.  
  
"Probably." I agreed. "They all seemed pretty disappointed with me for not morphing. They wouldn't even talk to me about it."  
  
[Maybe so, but they would have answered. That is what is important now.] Tobias said. [and they aren't answering.]  
  
"Maybe the morph took over for a while, they seem to be doing that quite a bit, huh?" I said. "I guess they are weak. Can't even control a morph. I have never had troubles with it." Wow, I was more bitter than I thought. Jeez, it was just a morph.  
  
[That isn't the point. We need to shake them from the trance before they go under. I can still see them, but barely. Hawk eyes don't work well in the night.] Tobias said.  
  
"Fine then, keep trying." Sam said. He was pretty mellow as well. But right then, I began thinking of way back in my TV watching days. I had just, at that exact moment, realized why the little voice in my head told me not to do the ant morph. It was because of the social structure.  
  
Ants are based on a monarchy, in a light meaning of the term. There is one queen that puts out pheromones and controls the way of the workers and such. Similar to a beehive, but less personalized. What I just realized was that the ants probably had no mind to speak of, only the empty, vacuous space reserved for orders. There was nothing really to take over and control.  
  
"Umm, Tobias. I think I just realized why they aren't responding."  
  
[Why? Are you sure?] he asked. I told him and he kept silent. [So, what you are saying is that there is no way to be normal again?]  
  
I shook my head. "No not quite. It may be possible, but it will be hard. You see, the structure would eliminate any trace of individuality."  
  
[What I don't understand is why you knew this but Cassie didn't.] Tobias said.  
  
"Believe me," Sam said from up above. "He knows more than you think. He always knows what would be useless information. I guess he is worth having around." He laughed.  
  
I smiled. "That's not fair, either way, we need to get going on this, before they get completely immersed." [Alright guys, enough is enough. We need to get on with the mission. You are not here to become king of the anthill.] I said. Gave them a sense of reality and humour. Keeps them on their toes.  
  
[Come on!] Tobias said. Man, he was boring.  
  
"Spice it up a bit." I told Tobias. Then I switched to thought speak. [Marco, if you don't get out of this, I will steal your playstation. And Jake, I will tell your brother everything you knew, really piss him off when you are an ant. Cassie, I will burn down the wildlife rehab clinic. Whitney, I will....] I couldn't think of anything to bother her, so I just made the first thing that came to mind, noting brilliant, [I will spread rumours about you and Marco. And Rachel, I won't go easy on you. I will destroy all the GAP, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren and any other places you go and blame it on you.] I said.  
  
[What was that for?] Tobias asked.  
  
"It was to connect them to something they know inside. If they make the connection subconsciously, then they can get angry at the suggestions and get in touch with their inner self and all that mushy spiritual stuff."  
  
[Oh, I see. Smart. Let's hope it works.] he answered.  
  
We continued saying things like that quite frequently until finally we got an answer from Whitney.  
  
[Whoa!] she yelled. I was sure someone in the neighbourhood must have heard her, but it was a surprised yell, so nobody said anything. She sat there, repeating something up the lines of 'ohmygodohmygod'. Or something like that. She was spooked. Finally, she stopped and actually said something. [Gordon, Tobias. You are lucky to not have to do this, you were right, this was a bad morph, Gordon.] she said. It sounded like an apology or something, but that wasn't important.  
  
[What's wrong? Lose yourself?] Tobias asked.  
  
[Yes, like never before. There was no self, none. You were right, this was a bad morph!] she said again.  
  
[Yes, I know. Now we need to get the others to come back to human consciousness.] I told her.  
  
[Speaking of human, I am definitely demorphing now. I need out of this morph.] she sounded urgent, but I told her not to. She had already taken over the morph, so why go through that again? She agreed and stayed in morph.  
  
It was another ten minutes before we got everyone back. One by one, they became aware of themselves and were horrified more and more each time. First it was cassie, then Jake, then Rachel, then ax, them Marco. Marco was exceedingly spooked.  
  
It took the all of us to keep him from demorphing and going home.  
  
[Marco, we need to do this and you are part of the group.] Cassie encouraged. [Come on, we need your help.]  
  
[No you don't. Gordon said it all, you don't need all of us in there at once, I am going home!] he yelled. I could see a little black ball growing from beside the fence.  
  
[Marco!] Tobias yelled. [You have to help them. Just this once. We will never do ants again, as long as you do this just once.]  
  
It took a bit of persuasion, but the little ball did eventually shrink into nothingness in the grass. After that, Tobias had to guide them to the wall of the house and a crack. I was still confused as to the plan, but it was worth a try.  
  
After the long and irritating task of leading them to the crack, we had to wait out there for like an hour before anything happened. Occasionally, I could hear Ax talking to the computer. Words like 'enlarge' and 'open'. Stuff like that. Eventually, when they were done looking for the device, I heard Ax go 'Ah Hah!' and before long, they were all on their way up out of the basement.  
  
[Alright, we are on the way up. I am not sure, but I think we will be able to get this thing out no problem.] Jake informed me and Tobias.  
  
It wasn't long before they suddenly started screaming and shouting.  
  
[AHH! Help me!] they would all say. I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do.  
  
I was straining my brain on what to do, when it occurred to me to ask what had happened.  
  
[What's going on?] I asked.  
  
[We just got attacked by another native colony of ants. Oh, god, They've got my abdomen cut right off. Please, help us. Anything, please!] Marco shouted.  
  
It was odd. I had no clue what to do, so I advixsed the first thing that came to mind. [Demorph!] I said. [It may hurt at first, but it was worth a try.]  
  
[Yeah, you couldn't be too deep in the ground, try it.] Tobias urged.  
  
[we will try.] Rachel said, then a second later, [AHHHHH!]  
  
Everyone let out a howl that was nothing more than pain, until I could see a large hump coming out of the ground near the base of the house. I was sure it was them.  
  
[I hope they didn't wreck the device.] Tobias said, all concern for his fellow Animorphs gone. And rightfully so. Their bodies were almost completely formed in the loose dirt beside Chapman's house.  
  
[Good to see you back.] Tobias said. [Got the transponder?]  
  
As soon as they were completely demorphed, Marco started looking around through the dirt and picked up a little blue ball smaller than a pea. It was really super small.  
  
"That's it, huh?" I asked.  
  
"Yes!" Jake said before Marco could answer. "Now, give it to Tobias so we can get out of here. I never want to do that again."  
  
"Amen to that." Marco agreed.  
  
"Amen." The rest joined in. Marco gave the pea to Tobias, who flew away with it. We all followed. 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
  
We decided to hold off the plan until the next weekend, for time and efficiency sake. That entire week, I was completely distracted. I couldn't believe what we were planning on doing. So many things could go wrong that I didn't want to think about it.  
  
I hated to be a bother, but just imagine what we were doing here. We were actually planning on getting a spaceship for our favorite andalite so we could go home. And sure, I don't have a problem with helping a fellow warrior, but one thing he said really stuck out. He told me the andalites already knew about the yeerk invasion here, he just wanted to go home. When he first told me this plan, I thought he wanted to tell them the urgency and the state the earth was in. This was disappointing news, but nobody else knows.  
  
But as for the plan, just think. Even though ax said there will be no real big deal regarding calling a distress signal and calling up the yeerks, there is so much that could go wrong. What if they send down the blade ship? What if they send in backup or call for reinforcements before we were able to get it. We would be outnumbered and probably beaten.  
  
Seriously, I was so distracted that week at work they had to send me home a little early. It was weird. They liked me there, but they saw I was stressed or something, so they sent me home two days that week. That wasn't me in any way.  
  
But the weird thing was that when I got home, Sam wasn't there. Either time. I asked Tobias, but he said he didn't know where he went.  
  
The first day, I dismissed it, but Tobias said he left every day to relax, hated the confinement of the forest. I asked if he could follow him the next day. I left and came back when I was supposed to, he was there.  
  
The next day, I came home early and found sam and Tobias gone again. Tobias was probably watching him wherever he went. I was thankful. So I eventually just walked around the forest until I found ax. Most of the time, he was at the edge of the meadow by the oak tree, but he often walked out into the forest to see the wildlife. Which I could understand.  
  
"Hey, Ax." I said as I pushed aside a fern to get to him. I met him sitting beside the fence at Cassie's place. He was there a lot.  
  
[Hello Gordon. Why are you here?] he asked. I was surprised that he wasn't surprised, but then I remembered he had stalk eyes and pretty good hearing. So of course he could see me coming.  
  
"Well, I was just thinking of asking you a few questions."  
  
[What kind of questions?] he asked.  
  
I sighed and hummed and hawed, not expecting to get any sort of answer, but I asked anyway. "Ax, has Sam been leaving the house while I was gone? I know you have more important things to do, and I could be caring about other things. This is none of my business, but I am curious. Does he leave?"  
  
[Well, yes. Every day for the few weeks I have been here. He leaves here every morning and comes back before you do.] he answered simply. [But he only leaves on the days you leave. Do those day have some sort of significance?]  
  
"Yeah, they're weekdays. For five days a week people go to their respective jobs and school. The other two days of the week are the weekend. Most people have these two days off to do whatever they like. We do most of our jobs on the weekend, it leaves open schedules." I explained. It felt weird telling Ax how the week worked.  
  
[Andalite warriors and scientists are expected to work all days of the year. Any day can mean war or plague.] he said proudly.  
  
"Yeah? Well, that's why you have faster than light travel and we still are barely able to get into space. And thank god for that, we can't handle the technology we have now."  
  
[Actually, faster than light travel is impossible. We do have access to Zero space, where such speeds are seemingly capable of happening. It is really more of a teleport system, with zero-space always rearranging. Sometimes getting from one planet to another can take minutes, others it may take days, or even weeks. That's in andalite time, though.]  
  
"I get it, Ax. I am usually happy to listen to your stories, but right now I am a little more worried about Sam. I am curious where he goes and why. It is really bothering me, he could put us all in danger." I said as I turned away from Ax and went back to camp.  
  
[Good to see you back.] Tobias said from the tall oak tree.  
  
[Good to see you, too.] I replied in personal thought speak as I trampled through the bushes leading to our clearing. [Any word on where he was?]  
  
[Yeah. Nowhere important, though.] he said. [Ask him, he will be home any time.]  
  
"Oh good, so I can talk normally then?" I said as I made my way through the bushes and finally into the silent clearing. Nobody was there, but I soon heard Ax crashing through the bush.  
  
I turned around to see him soaring over the brush I had to force through. I quickly scanned the area for any threat, but nothing. "What was that all about?" I asked him in between pants. My heart was pounding, but it was calming down.  
  
[Nothing. I enjoy earth's forests. Much more exotic than our own. I enjoy running as fast as I can through them, it improves my reflexes with all the trees and underbrush.] he explained.  
  
"Well, can you improve your reflexes in a more relaxed state? I mean, you scared me half to death."  
  
[Surprise is fatal in humans? We do have a species on the home planet that, when startled....] he started, but I interrupted.  
  
"Ax, it was just an expression. Human beings can't be killed by surprise. It is a means of exaggeration, we do that a lot in our wonderful language of English." I said. I was mostly calmed down by then.  
  
[I am sorry, I need more time to understand the human language. And many other aspects of human culture.] he said. [I will be gone soon, so is there any way to study them more?]  
  
[Well, you could go to the local library, but I don't think they would take kindly to an andalite coming in and taking the books.] Tobias laughed.  
  
Ax started saying something, but I cut him off. "Ax, we have all the time in the world. Sam is here now, and I need to take care of the issue at hand." I said. And indeed, Sam was just flying overhead and bout to land. I still couldn't see him, but I knew he was there. That was really beginning to freak me out.  
  
We were all silent until Sam landed not three feet away. "Good to see you home, how's work?" He asked. Tobias stayed out of it and Ax was clueless, so he stayed out of it too.  
  
"Fine." I replied. "Where have you been?" I asked inquisitively, and nonchalantly, I might add.  
  
"What's it matter? I was checking out possible routes to the yeerk pool. Gotta get something done while I am here alone. Tobias, although a cool guy, is too quiet. Ax is Clueless, and you are never here. I need to get some R&R." He said, like he had it all scripted out beforehand. "Anyway, I am hungry. I am going to make myself a sandwich."  
  
He tired to walk away, but I stopped him. "Sam, where were you?" I asked again, more strictly.  
  
"What's it matter. You aren't my father. I was enjoying myself by checking things out. I am allowed to do that, right?" He sneered.  
  
"Yes, but responsibly. I am not in any way a leader..."  
  
"I know...."  
  
".... but I do know one thing. You are a marked man, and if any yeerk sees you, you will have the entire police force on you in a matter of minutes. It would be horrible to have you go down to a bunch of guys with pistols, and I don't think you can dodge bullets."  
  
"Good for me. I know this." he stared at me for a minute, then shook his head. "Not like it was any of your business, but I was going to see Whitney."  
  
"Why would you do that? You see her all the time. You fight alongside her in battle for Christ's sakes." I said calmly. Something was nagging at the back of my mind, and I couldn't quite put it in place. It was about Whitney.  
"I see her because I want to. There is that little forty five minutes between when she gets home and when you do. And during that time, I go and see her for a few minutes. Where is the crime in that? Am I not allowed to see a friend of mine? Jesus, grow up. We have all suffered here, all I am doing is trying to soften the blow." He said solemnly.  
  
But still the question was in the back of my mind. Why Whitney. They just met, and they hardly knew each other. They never seemed to click, so why Whitney? I had to ask, "Of all the people to see, why did you see Whitney?" I let it out.  
  
He stared at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world. "What? Are you ignorant? You know how long I've known her?"  
  
I thought about it a minute longer, before shaking my head. "No, how long?" I asked.  
  
"About two years now. About as long as you." He said. "You wanna know how I met her? I was spying on one of the sharing meetings early in my career. The sharing was advertising through Whitney's gym club. The sharing was early in development then too. She saw me and asked what I was doing. I made up an excuse and got out of there. I have known her for a while, but never really became friends. We talked now and then, but that's about it. Now that we are in a war, and I have nowhere else to go to talk to someone. I go there. She is the only one outside of you that I know in this little group of guerrillas."  
  
"Oh, I didn't know. I thought you were out doing something stupid. Sorry for the hassle." I apologized. Boy, did I ever feel like a dumbass. "Why didn't either if you ever tell us this?" I added.  
  
"Well, I never really thought it mattered. We were one team now, we were all going to have to get along one way or another, so I was planning on having it more or less slide into the scheme of things. You know, simple."  
  
"But why didn't I know? Me, of all people?" I asked myself.  
  
"Don't worry, only Rachel knows anyway. She is there a lot of the time I am. Rachel spends almost as much time at Whitney's as she does as Cassie's." He said.  
  
"Well, I guess that is more than it was supposed to be. I am sorry I brought you off track. Let's pretend this never happened." I suggested.  
  
"Hey, Ax, you got the transponder ready?" He called across the field to ax. It was amazing how fast one switches the subject. I smiled.  
  
If he only knew. 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11  
  
The night before the mission, we were getting ready. Sam, as usual, was preparing the weapons he wanted to take, a Dracon beam and a sword. I still was wondering why exactly he brought the sword.  
  
Anyway, Ax was also getting his stuff ready to go. He had promised us he would try to bring the andalite forces to earth. He said he couldn't guarantee anything, but after the hospitality we had offered him, he said he would be happy to try.  
  
"So, Sam." I said as I walked up to him. "Why is it that you bring that sword. You haven't used it." It was his katana. It was in a sheath.  
  
"I like it. We didn't go to my house to get them for nothing. Besides, I could use it one day, and you will be thanking me."  
  
"Well, I don't see the use for it. You have a dracon beam, why would you need that for a battle with aliens?"  
  
Sam started to answer, but Ax interrupted, {Sometimes Stealth is key. A weapon such as a sword is fast, easy to use, and doesn't make a noise or light to give it away.} he said.  
  
"So is a sniper rifle." I added. Sam smiled. I was going to say more, but then I realized that he was right. You needed weapons to cover many different types of battle.  
  
"Well, anyway, I was thinking of maybe getting everyone together before we left. It would just be better for making sure we have the plan down pat." Sam said. "We can touch up plans and such before we do what we always do, screw up."  
  
"Alright, will you be staying here?" I asked.  
  
"Yeah, you can go and get them to come here. I will be waiting."  
  
I turned away and shed my outer clothing. It was almost chilly, but I was morphing. It wouldn't make any difference soon. As soon as I dropped the last of my clothes, I immediately felt the rush of feathers growing all over my body.  
  
Within seconds, I felt my lips harden and my body shrink. When the bones finally hollowed out and rearranged themselves, I was at the end of my morph. It took about fifteen seconds. I was a fast morpher, and talented too. Nobody noticed though. They all worshipped Cassie for being able to have almost complete control over the morphing process.  
  
I was kind of jealous.  
  
But either way, I was perfectly happy with my ability. I don't like to brag or show off. {See you in a few minutes.} I said to the three of them as I spread my wings and flew. A peregrine falcon isn't good at gaining altitude in the night, especially with no thermals.  
  
What a pain.  
  
By the time I made it to full height, I realized I needed an owl morph. I could see, but just barely. It was enough to locate the houses I needed to visit.  
  
Since Cassie was the closest, I decided to get her first. I wanted company.  
  
{Cassie, we are holding a meeting out at the church.} I said as I flew over the house. She would know what it meant. {Meet me on the roof, I have a little while.}  
  
I set down on Cassie's roof until I heard her window opening. A few seconds later, an owl flew out. {Hi Gordon.} Cassie said.  
  
{Hi Cassie. I am going to go get everyone together for a meeting. It isn't much, but Sam is cautious. He wants to get everything set before it happens this time.} I explained.  
  
{Oh, I can understand that.} she replied.  
  
I stared at her for minute before finally asking. {When did you get an owl morph?}  
  
{Yesterday. Thought t would be useful one day. The vision is wonderful. Far better than an osprey's at night. It looks like you are in a spotlight, I can see you so clearly.}  
  
{Well, I will have to get me one of those sometime soon.} I said. {Let's go.}  
  
We had just lifted off when I heard Tobias Calling. {Wait up, I am going too!}  
  
Cassie and I both flew in a circle until Tobias got there. {Hi.} I said.  
  
{Yeah, just thought I could maybe get them with you.}  
  
{No problem.}  
  
So the three of us all flew off into the night sky. The first stop was Rachel, she lived the closest to Cassie. We had Tobias go down and get her. He was the quickest. A few minutes later, Rachel and Tobias both came up together, Rachel's Eagle dwarfing Tobias.  
  
{Man, I can't see. How can I be expected to kick some ass if I can't see.} she complained.  
  
{You can see, just not as well as in the day.} I pointed out.  
  
{Well, it's like being half blind. Look at cassie, she has an owl morph, I need one.}  
  
It went on like that until we got to Whitney's, a whole two blocks down the road. I went down to get her. I knew her the best.  
  
{Hey, Whitney, up for a night stroll.} I called as I settled down on a rail on a balcony. {I'm here on the balcony.}  
  
It was like two minutes before the door opened, but what I saw was not what I thought it would be. Instead, it was Whitney's mom. I was going to fl away, the falcon in me was screaming to leave, but I stayed.  
  
"Hey, Whitney. Come check this out." She called into the house.  
  
"What is it?" Whitney asked, trying to pretend she didn't know.  
  
"It's a bird, a falcon." She answered. She tried to reach out slowly to pet me, but I fluffed my feathers and made a hissing sound.  
  
I didn't know I could do that.  
  
She backed away immediately and stared at me. I liked her, she was a cool teacher. I actually kind of missed her, she got along with me quite well. It actually surprised me that they never went after this family. I hung out with Whitney as much as I did with Sam or Tobias.  
  
Whitney walked out onto the balcony and looked at me. {meet us at the church in fifteen minutes, we are having a meeting.} I told her. She let out only the slightest nod to let me know she understood.  
  
I backed off and flew away. "Isn't that cool." I heard Sharon say as I left. Sharon is the name of Whitney's mom. I knew her that well. She was a teacher who I could call by her first name.  
  
I never did see Whitney, she must have went right there instead of meeting up with us. Apparently she was busy.  
  
I met up with Cassie, Tobias, and Rachel in the sky. We then went to get Jake and Marco. They were both a t Jake's house, so it was easy. Rachel went to get them, and they were both out in a hurry.  
  
{No problem.} Jake said. {Tom's out at a sharing meeting, and mom and dad are both out enjoying a nice night alone. Marco and I were playing goldeneye.}  
  
{And I was kicking his ass.} Marco added.  
  
{Whatever, you beat me once.} Jake said back.  
  
{Ah, yes, but that one time, I beat you by such a higher margin, that it beat you out by all the times you won.}  
  
{Whatever, that makes no sense.}  
  
So they fought about that and that Cassie had an owl morph as we led them back to my little church.  
  
Home, as anti-religious as I was.  
  
When we finally made it there, Whitney and Sam greeted us, with Ax holding standing off to the side. They were around a little fire.  
  
We all demorphed and sat on the logs set up for us. It was actually kind of nice. Peaceful.  
  
Sam stood up. "I guess you are all wondering why I brought you all here today." He said.  
  
Marco laughed. "We know why we are here. But why now?"  
  
"We have to make sure we do this right. If all goes well, then we have a contact in the andalite military. That contact could very well be the help we need to win this guerrilla war. Isn't that right Ax?"  
  
{Yes, if I was able to put in a good word....}  
  
Sam cut him off. "Good enough. Now, this is imperative that we don't fuck this up. We can't do our little half-assed schemes that so far have left us just barely able to escape. This time, we need to be precise. That would be nice."  
  
"Give me a hell Yeah!" I added. But something was wrong. Even though this was exactly how it was supposed to be, I could feel something complicated running through Sam as he spoke the words, and his mouth was letting it show. It was unnerving, but I let him continue.  
  
There was no reply to my 'hell yeah', so Sam did his thing. "First thing's first. Ax, do you have the working transmitter?"  
  
{Yes, it is...}  
  
Sam cut him off. For some reason, Sam didn't like Ax. "Good. The plan is to go out to the farthest reaches of the forest by the mountains and activate that thing. This will hopefully draw a bug fighter down to earth so we can steal it. We will all lay in wait and hope for the crew to come out. When they do, Wham!" Sam punched his hand. "We get them, anything missing?"  
  
Jake got up. "Well, there are the alternate scenarios. Like more than one show up. Or the blade ship. Anything can happen, so we need to be able to adapt quickly. Don't forget, the order to withdraw is prime. The most important thing is safety. The safety of all you."  
  
Sam stood back up and intercepted Jake. "But that is where we have the problems. What do we do in those situations. We are going in without a plan again. That is only vague, we need more direction."  
  
"Sam, sit down. Jake knows what he is doing." I said.  
  
Jake shrugged. "Mostly. It depends on the situation, and so many things can happen, so just be on your toes. There are too many possibilities to try and cover them all. Especially we are leaving at four tomorrow morning."  
  
Sam was confused. "Since when are we going at four in the morning?"  
  
"It was the decision as of two days ago. That way we could leave notes for the parents. Like saying we were going out for a morning walk." Cassie said. Even I was surprised.  
  
Early, sure, but four AM?  
  
Oh well, all's fair in love and war. "Well, I guess it is settled." Rachel said. "Now can I go back home? It is ten at night and I am tired. We all need sleep before tomorrow. I have to go." She got up as a feather pattern flowed out of her beautiful body.  
  
Yes, I had a bit of a crush, but let's not get into that.  
  
"See you tomorrow at four." I smirked and went into the house to get sleep. All of them morphed and flew away. Even Tobias left with Rachel. Sure, I was able to work with minimal sleep, but were they?  
  
I mean, come on. Four AM? And we needed to get up even earlier to get ready. 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12  
  
The next morning, I was awoken to see everyone else already there. They had already gotten ready and came to make sure we were going to do it right. Sam and I were not up.  
  
Slowly I awoke and got ready. Sam ended up carrying the device, because he was the only one who couldn't morph. Us birds couldn't carry it. It was a bit too heavy. You see, we could only lift so much for so long. Not an endurance race.  
  
So when we were all morphed, we were two peregrine falcons, a red- tailed hawk, two ospreys, a golden eagle, a bald eagle, a northern harrier, and Sam. Apparently Cassie had gotten Ax a northern harrier morph to travel in. And he sure made it known that he enjoyed it. {I do like this method of transportation far more than on human's two legs. That is very tricky, to stand on two legs.} he said.  
  
{Don't worry Ax, being a bird is great. Now let's go.} Jake said, asserting the group.  
  
Sam's eyes glowed red and he levitated off the ground and flew away in the general direction of where we were to go. The eight of us were soon to follow.  
  
We were mostly silent, we were pretty tired, but Ax couldn't shut up. {This is amazing!} he said. {this is better than salt and grease.}  
  
I was struggling not to say something mean, because I was flat tired. Instead, I said, {Ax, I thought you were an andalite cadet. You aren't allowed to have fun.}  
  
{If you say so.} Marco said.  
  
{Well, normally, activities for pleasure are hard to come by, but things like this are amazing. So I will try to enjoy it as long as I can.} Ax answered.  
  
{Well, that's good for you, here, have a doggy biscuit.} I said.  
  
{What is a doggy biscuit?} Ax asked. Nobody answered him because we were all too tired. We continued to fly for about half an hour, trailing behind sam all the way. We also tried to keep apart from one another to keep any potential bird watchers from suspicion. It was nice to cover all the boundaries.  
  
So, when we finally got there, Sam was standing against the rock wall formed beside a quarry. The mountains came to an abrupt stop about fifty feet up. It was actually a nice little clearing, with a swim-able little lake and everything.  
  
We all landed and demorphed, that was when Sam gave the transponder to Ax. "Do your magic." He said with a smile.  
  
Most of us sat down, tired as hell, but Jake stood up, looking around all over the place. He was probably looking and mapping all escape routes. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Would this work? And, where would we go if....  
  
You know, the usual Jake things.  
  
"So, after Ax turns that thing on, we will all hide in the bushes, even Ax?" Marco asked. And we are kind of the backup if he needs help?"  
  
"Pretty much."  
  
Rachel pushed some of her hair back off of her face, because she was nodding off. We were all tired. "So we only get to fight if ax can't handle one hork bajir and one taxxon?" She sounded disappointed.  
  
"Pretty much." Jake said. He was tired too.  
  
Then a solution dawned on me. "Ax, when you do the distress thing, does it send sound, or telepathy, or just 'come and get me I am here!'?"  
  
{Well, it would depend on how I program it. It does have settings.} he answered.  
  
I was thinking if maybe I could help. "Well, I was thinking, I am the only one with a hork bajir morph, and if you were planning on just sending a signal, then I have a better idea." I said. "It involves a hork bajir and a bit of blood. I was thinking instead of sending a suspicious call from someone they don't have a record of. Instead of having them dome to a clearing and seeing nothing, and possibly leaving, we give them evidence of a struggle." I suggested.  
  
"You will morph hork bajir to lure them in...." Cassie started.  
  
"Then have ax attack while they are tending to you." Whitney finished. Smart ones they were. No, seriously.  
  
"And we get to morph and beat you up a little." Marco stated with a smile.  
  
"Yes, it needs to look like I was attacked." I said.  
  
Jake shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, 'sure, go ahead.' We were all tired still and didn't want to put much effort into anything.  
  
I began to morph to hork bajir. {Don't forget, they need to see me beaten up, so get some blood.} I said as I morphed. {but not too deep. I don't want to be debilitated, just bloody.} Cassie was morphing wolf, while Whitney morphed Tiger. Rachel and Marco didn't morph yet, they couldn't draw any blood. Jake was tired, so he stayed out of it.  
  
When we were all morphed, I tried out my mouth. "Thhhhhhh, Thissss. Thiss iss Illllnith. This is Illnith. AlllRight. I thhhhink I hhhhhaveit." {Alright. Come on.} I bared myself and let them do their work.  
  
First, Cassie Jumped on my back and ripped some flesh off my shoulders. {Sorry.} she said. It was just skin, but it hurt. It wasn't clean, it was ragged and the air was making it hurt.  
  
Cassie jumped off and let Whitney do some work. She slashed at my left arm and right leg. This left three tracks across. They quickly congealed, but were still large scabs. {That's cool.} Whitney said.  
  
{Yeah, that is odd.} I agreed. It appeared as if hork bajir healed themselves faster than humans. Way faster. Those tracks were already thick line scabs.  
  
{Okay, I think that is enough.} I said. {I don't exactly feel good.}  
  
But, sure enough, it was Sam's turn. He stepped forward, katana pointed out.  
"Don't Sam." Jake said.  
  
In a split second, Sam leaned forward, lowering his sword. He stepped once, and raised it diagonally across the chest. The pain was sudden and intense. Like I had been open. It was a sharp pain that felt like electricity through my body, and gone as quickly. What followed was a dull pain so severe it made me almost sick.  
  
I saw Jake get up, after Sam. But I was too dizzy to really pay attention at the time. I fell on my back.  
  
{Gordon, Are you alright?} I heard Whitney say.  
  
{Gordon, get up.} Cassie said. I was falling into a deep sleep. But that didn't last long. Almost instantly, I was back aware and slowly regaining strength. I got up and looked down at my chest. The gash was still open, but a scab. It was a fully formed gash, and it looked new, but the blood was hard.  
  
I touched it, there was blood everywhere, then I looked up. I saw Jake giving Sam hell, so I went over. Everyone else backed away.  
  
{It's alright, Jake.} I said. He looked at me.  
  
"If you say so. We need to get going." He walked away. Then I turned to Sam.  
  
{What the hell was that for?} I asked.  
  
"Realism." he said simply. I turned around. Everyone was talking in a group. They were all demorphed. Well, all that could be. Tobias was sitting patiently in a nearby tree.  
  
{That was odd.} he said. {Let's hope it never happens again.}  
  
{Agreed.} I said. {Let's get this show on the road.}  
  
Ax walked out and everyone else began to morph battle morphs. {Here. You press this to transmit. Then speak into it. It will pick up even thought speak, so I can't help you once it is on. You also have to speak with the hork bajir tongue, if you use telepathy, it will pick that up, and no hork bajir controller can use thought speak.} he said. {Do you understand?}  
  
"Yes, I do understand. Can I have it now?" I asked with the voice. It was kind of raspy and hoarse. Ax gave me the device as the last of the Animorphs disappeared into the nearby forest. Sam passed me a Dracon beam for effect.  
  
I flipped the switch, or pressed the button. All I did was touch it and it went off on it's own thing again. I waited a second, then said into it, "Illnith 182, I need help. I have been attacked by the andalite bandits. I have managed to throw them off, but I need help now. Anything would be nice." I said in a beaten down and hurt voice. I turned it off and went to lean against the rock wall. It was a cliff.  
  
It was a good ten minutes before I saw anything worth seeing. I saw a little red dot in the sky, moving around. It was faint, because it was early morning and the sun was up. It seemed to circle uncertainly for a few minutes until it finally decided on landing only a few feet from me.  
  
As soon as it landed, a door opened in the side. One hork bajir came out and I could see one taxxon working the controls. Just like Ax said. {All clear. Just as Ax said.} I said to everyone.  
  
The single hork Bajir got out and came toward me. He looked like he was here to help, but as soon as he was clear away from the ship, Ax jumped out of the trees and went into the ship. Everyone else was also storming out of the woods. By the time the hork bajir realized what was happening and drew his shredder, Jake, Whitney, and Cassie were all on him in an instant.  
  
Ax took care of the single taxxon in the ship with ease. Sam was nowhere to be found, and Rachel was just now coming out of the forest, booming with every step. It all seemed too easy. I wasn't normally a paranoid person, but this just didn't seem right. It was going all according to plan, but I knew it wasn't, for some reason.  
  
Either way, I wasn't going to let this happen. Something was wrong, I didn't know how or why, but I knew. I went over to Rachel, who was busy trying to squish the hork bajir under her tree trunk foot. He just stopped moving. He wasn't dead, he was still breathing.  
  
{Rachel, Back away.} she did. {Something is wrong here.}  
  
{I know. He isn't even struggling.} she said.  
  
Everybody backed off. We left the prone hork bajir alone, just staring at it. He still wasn't moving.  
  
I heard the bug fighters engines blast out in a loud boom. The fighter hovered a few feet off the ground.  
  
Then my paranoia became reality.  
  
In an instant, a large ship shimmered from nothingness and shot at the side of the bug fighter. The ship was at least six times the size of the bug fighter and was shaped like a battle axe.  
  
It was the Blade ship of Visser Three, our greatest nemesis.  
  
Ax did jump out and ran to us, he barely made it when the blade ship fired and missed him by a few feet, and a laser that big is enough to reduce you to nothing.  
  
One by one, bug fighters appeared out of nowhere. Ten, no, twenty, all at once. Even lines of hork bajir materialized out of the rocky cliffs above us. How long they had been there, I did not know. If it was too long, even if we did escape, they would know who we were and it would be over.  
  
I still couldn't see Sam. He was nowhere to be seen, and that bothered me.  
  
{Run.} Jake said silently.  
  
{What good would it do?} I said. {They have us in a clear trap. If we move, they will kill us.} but even before we could make a decision, the hork bajir on the cliff shot the dracon cannon they had and they somehow formed a bubble of dracon mesh. It didn't shrink, thank god.  
  
But it did leave us nowhere to run. 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13  
  
{I guess this is it.} Marco said. {I have said it before, and I'll say it again, we shouldn't have got into this.}  
  
Rachel turned her big head around and glared at Marco. {We aren't dead yet, there is still a chance.}  
  
{Anything can happen.} Whitney said.  
  
Then Marco said, {Well, I don't think much more is going to happen than these hork bajir frying us like Animorphs kebabs.}  
  
Rachel picked up the still hork bajir with her trunk. He was still in the dome area. Considering there was an elephant, the dome was pretty big, so he was included in our little jail. She picked him up and threw him at the wall of red beams. And well, have you ever seen Resident Evil? It was something like that. He was cut like he had been pushed through a net that was made of razor wire. It was gross, needless to say.  
  
All the now ground based hork bajir raised their weapons at us. We stopped dead in our tracks. {Well, I guess we could wait for opportunity.} Whitney said. And she was right. At the time, it did look hopeless.  
  
Then the blade ship descended to the ground and the hatch in the side opened, revealing Visser Three himself. He walked out and stared at us with all four andalite eyes. He didn't have a mouth, but deep down inside I could feel him smiling.  
  
{Ah, yes. Seven morph capable andalite fighters. This will be my greatest victory yet.} he said with a sneer. {Visser one will be proud. I may even get promoted.} you could feel his pride, oozing though his words, but then again, he wasn't trying to hide it.  
  
I was looking around at the various members of the bug fighter fleet around us, when I noticed three wires of the mesh seemed to be out of place. I disregarded it at first, but I noticed three more missing. They were disappearing.  
  
I looked up to the cliff, where I saw some of the cannons unattended and the others looking puzzled. Meanwhile, the Visser gloated on about his victory. I was ignoring him, I was looking at Sam, or so I thought.  
  
I was wondering why they weren't attacking him, but then I realized what was happening when a glint of reflection shimmered my way. Then it dawned on me, sam was controlling the hovering sword from a distance. I smiled, or at least tried to. Beaks don't smile.  
  
Before long, they figured out what was happening and they dropped the shield altogether. {come on, let's go now!} Rachel suggested.  
  
But at the same time, more hork bajir jumped down from the hovering bug fighters and they moved in closer, guns drawn. The pattern they were in was like a tunnel to the blade ship.  
  
{No, Rachel. Does it look like we can go very far?} Marco said.  
  
{Let's just go. Id doesn't look like we have much of a choice.} Jake said, mentioning the inevitable.  
  
{I can't believe it's over already.} Cassie said. She was hopeless, and with good reason. It was like we were being prepared for the last mile.  
  
Thank God Tobias got away safe. He left before they started showing up.  
  
But we still had one last hope, even if small. It was Sam. {Alright, if you are doing anything, now would be a good time!} I urged, talking only to Sam.  
  
Almost instantly, three beams of light flew from the forest and took down two of ships. The third was aimed at the blade ship, which was shielded. He stepped out of the trees, two guns pointed at the crowd of bug fighters and started shooting, eyes glowing.  
  
The fleet dispersed and flew around in a circle. They readied themselves and came back around to shoot at Sam.  
  
{No, you fools. Don't kill him, I want that body!} the Visser roared. {And get those morphed into the ship!} Immediately, all the hork bajir in a line nudged us, while a select few went off to shoot at Sam.  
  
Sam jumped up so high he dodged the first few, while also going upside down and shooting all over the place. He even clipped Rachel, but it was on such an angle that it only took one ear off.  
  
This was enough to piss Rachel off.  
HHHHHHHRRRRRRREEEEEOOOOOORRRR!!!!!!  
  
She let out a below and knocked three hork bajir guards away before they shot her in the side. She let out another trumpet.  
HHHHHHHHRRRRRREEEEEOOOOOORRRR!!!!!!  
  
She was not mortally injured, but she did now have a giant burn mark on her side. I was so close to her I could feel the heat and smell the cooking flesh. It was nauseating together.  
  
{Rachel, just wait. We will think of something!} Jake said. {There is still hope.}  
  
So we all shut up and loaded the blade ship. Our chances were getting worse and worse. Meanwhile, Sam was flying through the air, shooting and dodging beams back and forth with five hork bajir. I was the last to get in.  
  
{Good luck, Sam.} I wished him as I got on. As the doors closed, the last thing I saw was sam hesitate for a second to watch me board. This was all the hork bajir needed. I saw him get hit in the shoulder, chest, and upper arm. I saw him fall, but I didn't see him land.  
  
As soon as the doors shut, the lights in the hangar turned on. It was pretty roomy.  
  
I could feel the ship begin to move, but there was no recoil. How's that for modern technology. So we sat and waited for another half an hour. It was a while before we said or saw anything.  
  
One cool thing was, about half way through the trip, the side of the blade ship turned transparent and we could see the planet in the distance. It was beautiful, if it wasn't infested with slugs, but still the beauty was irresistible to behold.  
  
{It is beautiful, isn't it?} Cassie observed.  
  
{I was just thinking that.} I said. Not much was said after that.  
  
We all just sat there until a menacing object came into view. It would seem it was the yeerk mother ship. It was like a big dome. Flat on the bottom with three protrusions. It looked scary and ominous.  
  
I liked it, don't ask me why.  
  
We all sat there, staring at the giant pod floating in the absence of space. {Is that what I think it is?} Marco asked.  
  
I nodded my head. {Yeah, Marco. I think it is. It is the day of judgement. Welcome to reality.} it wasn't like me to be pessimistic, but it was looking really bad. {I know that only god can judge me. And if I make it through today, will tomorrow be the same? Am I just running in vain? And if I stumble and I fall should I get up and carry on? Will it all just be the same? 'Cause I'm young and I'm hopeless. Im lost and I know this.} I recited from good charlotte. It just seemed right.  
  
{I didn't know you worshipped god.} Cassie said.  
  
{I don't, that was a song lyric. But what better time to start, eh?}  
  
We were all silent until the blade ship ported at the side. I swear, the big bulb shifted and morphed until it fit the side of the ship. We were now beside a huge hangar with many bug ships and hork bajir troops, all decked out in blue sachets.  
  
I saw Visser three and about ten hork bajir guards in red sachets come strolling through the open bay we were now beside. {This is going to get ugly, I can feel it.} I said. I got a unanimous agreement.  
  
The Visser stood in front of the thousand or so troops and stood at attention. {This doesn't seem right. The Visser is getting in line?} Jake said. {This is going to be big. Maybe this is Visser one?}  
  
{Let's hope not, if he is as vile as Visser three, then I don't want to meet him.} Marco said.  
  
The clear door that separated us from the hangar opened and a group of hork bajir led us to a corner of the hangar. The blade ship departed and we were left in another cell. But this one was square, and in the corner of the hangar.  
  
We each got our own cell, like we were being tried for war crimes or something. These blocks were made of the dracon net, stuff that held us before.  
  
Something told me we weren't going to get a fair trial. I laughed at the concept.  
  
{What are you laughing at?} Rachel demanded.  
  
{Nothing, I just had a thought. I don't even remember what it was now.}  
  
Rachel, satisfied with this thought, shut up and waved her ears around. There was plenty of room. All of us eventually sat or laid down. I, being an injured hork bajir, was exhausted. And I couldn't help but think of what they were doing with him.  
  
{So, who wants to play 20 questions?} Whitney asked.  
  
Everyone said no.  
  
It was a good ten minutes more before anything happened. Still, all the blue-strap hork bajir all standing at attention, and Visser three with his 10 at the front. Then, a human woman came out from a door on a balcony above the hangar. Like one that had stairs leading to the main floor with all the bug fighters on it.  
  
This woman was also followed by 10 blue strapped hork bajir. Something tole me the blue ones were hers. And something also told me she was a big person. She waked down the stairs and met up with Visser three at the front of the ranks.  
  
{Well, Visser one, it is good to see you in this area again. Here to oversee the conquering of earth?} Visser one asked sarcastically.  
  
"No, I do not believe you have proceeded with that plan as of yet. As I believe, you have a measly few andalites hindering your success." She said blandly.  
  
{Yes, they were slowing my progress, but now they are here.} he said as he pointed at us. {And we have them. Seven morph capable beings. I believe this will be a huge advance.} you could almost hear him asking for a raise.  
  
I looked over to see everyone to see how they were doing. I saw Marco plop down on the ground. I guess he saw this was really the end.  
  
{Marco, you have to hold it together, man. Don't do anything. Don't say anything, you understand?} Jake said. {you can't say anything.}  
  
Nobody said anything, so I assumed I wasn't supposed to hear what they were saying.  
  
There was silence for a minute, before....{But Jake. It can't be. No, it's impossible, this can't be true. But that's my mom.} he said calmly.  
  
{Not anymore. She's Visser one now.}  
  
What, that wasn't right. Marco's mom was dead. She died in a marine accident two years ago, or so I was told. Was this woman, Visser One, his mother? Was she really alive.  
  
There were too many things to ponder at the time, I even missed most of the conversation between Visser's one and three. All I heard was "well, with one matter out of our hands, take them to the onboard pool. If they struggle, kill them." Visser one said as she walked out of the room, followed by her guard.  
  
As soon as the door closed behind her, the shields around us disappeared and the guards came to guide us again. 


	14. Chapter 14 Sam

Chapter 14(Sam)  
  
I was shooting left, right and centre. The entire army was on me and I was winning. Hovering above the crowd, dodging lightning bolts, or so it seemed.  
  
It was exhilarating.  
  
The entire time I had a smile on my face, concentrating on killing while not being killed myself. I was able to almost feel where the beams of red were coming from, so I was able to avoid them, until that dumbass Gordon decided to 'wish me luck'.  
  
This made me notice that they were all being loaded into the blade ship, in single file at that. They were all being loaded and taken without a fight! Sure, they had no weapons, but they could at least try.  
  
Unfortunately, this took my concentration off of me and the battle I was in long enough to get hit. A searing pain was spread throughout the entire left side of my upper chest and arm. This made me drop the weapon in that hand and it fell to the ground.  
  
The pain was so intense that I lost my concentration and was immediately let free from my grip. I fell like a stone to the ground below, where fifty hork bajir soldiers were waiting for me, eyes waiting and eager.  
  
When I fell, the Hork bajir all stayed out of a ten foot radius around me, and I saw Visser three form out of the crowd. {Ah, yes. The Telekinetic one. Sam, was it? You will be of good use to me.} he said. {Stand up!}  
  
Slowly, painfully, I got to my feet. Deep down inside, I knew he wouldn't kill me. I wold be a useful host. I stared him in the eyes. Andalites aren't that big, and even a big andalite like Visser three was only eye level with me.  
  
I held the burned shoulder, but let it go because it hurt too much. "What's the matter, don't you want to take me?" I coaxed. "Big bad Visser doesn't want to kill?"  
  
{Oh, I would be glad to kill you, but quite frankly, you are too good of a host to waste. You see, your andalite friends are likely to be killed, but you, you are a true prize.} he said, his voice oozing with contempt as he said andalites.  
  
I concentrated on a gun being holstered by a nearby hork bajir and stared back into the eyes of Visser three. "Well, I guess you are definitely not going to infest me, because I will not go down without a fight."  
  
The world glowed red as the gun flew from the holster and hovered, pressed against the Visser's head. I smiled. I could easily kill him right now, but I didn't, not yet.  
  
It was a stare down. "Well, I hope you do know that your life is about to end." I informed him. "Now, I hope you have a replacement."  
  
{you realize that if you shoot, any one of these hork bajir could shoot you out of the air, and your little stand would be useless. You would be dead, no longer able to serve the andalites.} he said with disgust, and what seemed to be nervousness. He was scared, and although he tried to not show it, he was bleeding fear.  
  
And I loved it.  
  
"Maybe so, but me, you, and how many hork bajir lost in the crossfire? All that for a hope to kill me. Now, we haven't known each other long, but I know you don't want that, and as much as I want to see you dead, I don't either." I said, confusing him. "So, the most beneficial solution to this is to both go our own ways. I live, you live, and we both get each other another time to kill each other. What do you say?"  
  
I extended my hand, still keeping the weapon hovering at his head. But I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. He was saying something to one of the hork bajir.  
  
Now, why I didn't think of it is still a mystery, but as soon as I was about to leave, I saw a light to the left of me and my entire body went numb. One of the bastards had shot me on stun. I held onto consciousness for about two seconds before slipping into a comatose state.  
  
{You have given me reason to have fun with you before I allow one of my favorites to take you.} The Visser gloated.  
  
For what seemed like eternity, I slipped in and out of consciousness. Seeing a black wall above me, floating figures, and aliens. Many aliens.  
  
When I finally did come to, I was being dragged down a corridor made of metal by two hork bajir. I would hardly say dragged was a good word though, my feet weren't touching the floor.  
  
As I went down the hall, I noticed that there were many big doors made of steel, they looked like they were made for sliding. I was brought into one.  
  
I was still to much asleep to really do anything about it, I was barely taking note of what as going on around me.  
  
Anyway, when I got into the room, I was thrown in front of a group of ten hork bajir, all with blue sachets strung across their shoulders. In front of them was a small human woman. Didn't seem right in this place.  
  
"So, you are the mighty sam, or Visser three tells me. You don't look very mighty to me right now." She said.  
  
I was just now able to talk, so I did. "I am kind of incapacitated right now, you stupid bitch. Maybe if you tried to fight me one on one, then it would be a one sided fight." I clenched my fist, and noticed that it was completely burn free. That was always a plus.  
  
"Well, I guess we will have time to evaluate your ability soon enough." She said.  
  
"And who in the hell are you to judge me?" I asked.  
  
She looked almost hurt. "You don't know me? That's too bad. I would almost like to take you myself, but I really can't. You see, this host and I have grown quite attached, but just be let know that you were considered as a host for Visser one."  
  
"I'm honoured." I sneered.  
  
She turned around and began walking out of the room. "Make sure you get a yeerk in his head. I want him at the onboard pool. His friends need some guidance." And with that she left, all ten of her guards following.  
  
There was just one problem with her plan. The little talk we had gave me time to wake up and regain my concentration. Just as a door opened in the ground, one of the unmarked hork bajir grabbed the back of my head and tried to force it into the pool of grey, slimy yeerks.  
  
I, of course, resisted, using all the might of my body and mind to push back. When one failed, the other joined in, trying to lift me from my foundation. It didn't work, instead, I looked at one of the holstered guns out of the holster and made it shoot at the hork bajir ir was attached to. He fell on the ground, stunned, because that was what I wanted.  
  
I made the gun make it's way to my hand, where I left the other hork bajir in a standoff, for he had already pulled his gun out.  
  
Without hesitation, I shot his hand, making him drop the weapon. He almost immediately jumped at me, but I made him stop in midair. I wasn't, however, able to keep him up for long. I shot him in the chest and turned around, leaving the little room.  
  
What I faced was an endless hallway. People and metal all over the place. I went up to the nearest group of two hork bajir and asked where the onboard pool was. I needed to make sure the rest of them weren't taken yet, there still might be hope.  
  
"Sorry, I am new on the ship, could you tell me how to get to the onboard pool." I asked. He stared at me for a minute before giving me direction. It was pretty much at the end of the hall.  
  
I followed, and when I got there, I saw what I could only think of before. It was a big open area, with a pool in the middle and cages around the outside.  
  
I saw a group of ten red, sachet hork bajir escorting a group of zoo animals. An elephant, a wolf, a gorilla, two tigers, a hork bajir, and an andalite. No bird, but oh well, all the better. That meant he left before the fight. I never did take the time to notice.  
  
The hork bajir set them up along the wall, hopefully to get them to demorph. I had no clue how long I was out, so I don't know how much time was left.  
  
So, instead of waiting to find out, I took careful aim at all the hork bajir guarding them, and opened fire. 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15(Gordon)  
  
We were a small, sad, depressed little bunch, marching down the corridor like it truly was the last mile this time.  
  
Hork bajir ears weren't the greatest, but they did pick up the screams that were emanating from the immense room ahead. I could tell it was the yeerk pool.  
  
{We can't just let them do this!} Rachel said, outraged. {we have to do something. Fight back, at least make it difficult for them.}  
  
{And what do you suggest we do?} Whitney asked. {I mean, short of getting us all killed or something.}  
  
{Anything, I hate just walking to our doom. Maybe we could refuse to demorph, that way they couldn't at least take our bodies. I would rather be dead than be a controller, and I would rather be an elephant than dead.}  
  
{Amen to that.} I said.  
  
Just then, we walked into the open space. Not quite the roomy nature of the one on earth under the city, but good enough. And the metal surrounding it instead of dirt was a nice touch.  
  
The guards pointed us to the wall, and lined us up. It was a scene out of world war two, the Nazis lining up the jews for execution, but instead of shooting us, they pointed the guns at us and demanded us to demorph.  
  
None of us said anything. We ll just lined up and waited. That was until I saw a group of shots bring down our captives. It was coming from the other side of the pool.  
  
Once all the hork bajir had been brought down, I looked up to see it was sam. He jumped up and over the pool to meet with us. I hate to admit it, but I was quite glad he was alright and still on our side.  
  
"We need to run." He said. "I can get us out of here." My wounded hork bajir body didn't do well. I kept tripping over my own feet the entire time. Stumbling sucks.  
  
So we followed sam, through the halls of the mother ship. We thought we were almost there, when a group of fifteen hork bajir stood in our way. We had to fight with them.  
  
So the battle began, I was behind Rachel, so I didn't get involved very much. It was me, Sam, and Marco behind, Cassie, Jake, Whitney and Ax in front. It was a standoff.  
  
{I believe this may be hostile, Prince Jake.} Ax said.  
  
{I think that is true, and don't call me prince.}  
  
{Yes, prince Jake.}  
  
Almost instantly, the hallway exploded in a rage of slashing beasts and aliens. {Sam, get me a gun. If they decide to fight us from behind too, I will be useless.} I said eagerly.  
  
He looked at me and closed his eyes. "Alright, I will give you my gun until I get another one. I can get one later." He said as he threw me the gun.  
  
Meanwhile, Jake, Whitney, Ax, Cassie and Rachel were fighting the hork bajir. I couldn't really see what was going on, but I could tell that we were winning. The cries and screaming was dying down.  
  
I held the gun in my hand, backing up slowly as Rachel's bulk pushed forward. There was nobody coming yet, but they would come, I know.  
  
And just as expected, another group of ten red, clad hork bajir were turning the corner and running down the hallway. I raised the weapon, waiting for them to come in range.  
  
"Wait for it." Sam said. "Wait for it."  
  
It wasn't long before I shot the first shot, going straight down the middle. It didn't disintegrate through them but it did knock them down.  
  
I looked to the side and saw Sam's eyes glow, as a gun was pulled from the hands of a hork bajir and brought to his open hand. We continued to shoot until we couldn't hold them back any longer. The guns were on stun, so they wouldn't burn through the hull of the ship.  
  
A few even got so close that Marco had to get involved. One made it past the beams and Marco grabbed the side of his head, smashing it into the wall. It actually left a dent. And pieces of beak went flying.  
  
I shot him, to keep him down for a while. The last one made it to Marco again, so he pushed him into the way of my shot. He was down for the count.  
  
{Alright, they are gone for now, let's try to get out of here.} Jake said.  
  
I continued backing up over bloody bodies as Rachel pushed forward. It wasn't long until we made it to another large junction where there were three other routes. We were all confused.  
  
{What do we o now?} Rachel asked.  
  
{We need to check out each corridor to see where it was going.} Cassie said. {And we don't have time. Ax, how much time do we have left in morph?}  
  
{We have approximately twenty five percent of the morph time left.} he said. That meant we only had 30 minutes left.  
  
We were all discussing where to go when a single unarmed hork bajir in a blue tunic walked down the front hallway.  
  
{What is that?} Marco asked.  
  
"It's a hork bajir, dumb-ass." Sam said sarcastically.  
  
{I know that, but why is it alone, and why is it unarmed, coming directly at us?}  
  
{I do not know, but I am not going to kill it, is helpless.} Jake said.  
  
{Fuck that, these yeerks need to die, every single one of them!} Rachel cried, then started to run forward in a murderous rage.  
  
One of the tigers got in her way, I think it was Whitney, because she said, {Rachel, just wait.} and she did, at least for a while.  
  
We all stood there and waited. When the hork bajir got to us, it looked at each and everyone of us, before saying, "If you wish to leave, you must go down this hallway," he pointed to the hallway to the left, "take the third right, follow it to the second left, and down the drop- shaft. That will take you to a small hangar with an escape pod. It has been pre-programmed to take you back to the location where you were abducted." This hork bajir seemed quite intelligent, which was odd. Usually, the hork bajir mouth wouldn't allow truly comprehensible speech.  
  
"And you may want to demorph. You are nearing the end of the time limit and the pod is not big enough to accompany your size." He said, pointing at Rachel. "Goodbye, and good luck." With that he turned and walked back to whence he came.  
  
{Well, do we go? Or do you think it is a trap?} Rachel asked.  
  
{I think it is real.} I said. {if they wanted us dead, they could do it, plus, it is all we have got to work from.}  
  
{Alright, we go. But be careful.} Jake said.  
  
We all rumbled down the hall, third right, second left. Then we were stopped by an elevator shaft. An empty elevator shaft.  
  
{Ax, how do we get down there? Where's the elevator?} Whitney asked, looking down the shaft. I walked over and looked too. There was no elevator or anything, above or below.  
  
{Umm, I think we have to jump.} I said. Sure, easy for me. I was a hork bajir. I was made for that type of thing, but Rachel?  
  
{you have never used a drop-shaft?} Ax asked. {It is simple.} he walked out to the shaft and he hovered there. Not rising, not falling. Then, out of nowhere, he fell like a stone. I looked down to see him slow to a stop many levels down. I looked at everyone with a shrug.  
  
{I am trying it.} I said, as I walked onto the elevator. And it worked. As soon as I stepped on it, I started floating. I wanted to go down a few floors to begin.....  
  
Whoa!!!! I was falling, but falling slower and slower already. I could see hork bajir on each level as I went down. It wasn't long before I was at the bottom floor, standing alongside Ax.  
  
I could see a little round thing not too far off. It was probably the escape pod. And behind me came Jake, Whitney, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, then Sam.  
  
Sam was pointing a gun straight up, shooting it. "GO! GO!" He yelled. "Demorph." I got the suspicion someone was following us, and why not?  
  
Rachel and Marco started to demorph as they went to the pod. I went into the pod and demorphed. It wasn't long before we were all there, except Sam.  
  
Just as the ship lifted off and the door started to close, Sam jumped in.  
  
"So, how's that for an escape?" He asked through pants when he came to his senses.  
"It was good." I laughed. "Now let's go home."  
  
"Agreed." Jake said as he collapsed against the wall of the pod. We were all tired once again. It was still the day, so we could get back to our regular lives.  
  
I looked through the glass bubble that was showing the planet getting closer and closer. But it was so big that it wasn't really noticeable.  
  
"So, none of us thought we were going to get out of that one. But we did. And we will do it again. So don't let your guard down." Whitney said. "So, who's up for a milkshake?" She looked around, smiling. But that was Whitney, always optimistic. No, wait, Whitney was pessimistic, but only in some occasions.  
  
Oh well, we were going home.  
  
In the time it took to get home, I looked around. Jake was laying on the floor, passed out, head laying on Cassie's Lap. I looked dup to see Cassie put a finger to her mouth. "Shhhh." She said quietly.  
  
Whitney was leaning against the wall. Next to Sam, who was nodding his head, twirling a gun around his finger. That was Sam for you.  
  
Ax was standing in front of the pod, watching the planet. Keeping his duty to his prince, making sure he was safe, or something. I don't know, maybe he was disappointed he didn't get to go home. Oh well, there would be other times.  
  
I was sitting against the wall, Rachel next to me, almost asleep. Boy, would we ever have a fun time telling Tobias what happened.  
  
Then, there was Marco. Sitting with his eyes closed, tears just drying on the side of his face, jaw quivering. It was the first time he was able to express real emotion since the battle.  
  
"It's alright, Marco." Cassie said suddenly and quietly. "It was hard on all of us. We are all glad to be alive. I am sure Jake wouldn't mind if you sat the next one out. I think you are right. You are all your dad has left."  
  
Marco smiled, as if to tell her she was wrong. But instead, he said, "Cassie, I finally realize that my dad is not the only one I have to protect. I will be there for any of you, whenever you need me."  
  
I knew what he was talking about, but judging on how cassie reacted, she didn't. "Well, there is a whole planet out there, we are only human." Cassie said.  
  
Marco smiled again. I guessed he didn't want me to say anything. I don't think he knew I knew.  
  
Anyway, it was another hour or so before we made it back to the quarry. Without much talk, we all morphed our respective birds and were off to our respective homes. I noticed the pod went BOOM before it was out of my hearing. 


	16. Epilogue

Well, this was seemingly done quite well at first, but after careful examination, I found it wasn't that great. I didn't like this book to start with, so it was a chore to write, and it shows. I didn't adapt the original very well, and it is all over the place, so forgive me.  
  
Book six, the Capture, is really good. This one had some of Sam's Arrogance show, but overall didn't work very well. Oh well, I have learned from my mistakes. So review, tell me what you would like to see fixed.  
  
Runa 


End file.
